This species is distinguished from its congeners by the following set of characters: scales on trunk iridescent light blue covering the entire caudal peduncle; dorsal portion of head grey with distinct red lobes along supraorbital canal; posterior scale margins on postorbital portion

of opercle creating two pronounced brown-red oblique bars; dorsal and anal fins golden, marked with dark grey dots and stripes proximally and medially, merging into uniform dark grey zone distally; dark red to red colouration of the proximal side of the caudal fin, plain red medially, and with slender black distal band; and colouration of the brown-red scale margins, a series of morphometric and meristic differences, and in the structure of the cephalic sensory system (Ref. 138025)