This species is distinguished from its congeners by the following set of characters: color is silvery in life; absence or presence of one black spot behind the eye, approximately equal to the pupil; absence or presence of three black spots on the opercle, smaller than the pupil; absence of black spot on the top of the head; black spots on the flank are few (less than 61), irregularly shaped, large (spots along the lateral line larger than half of the pupil or equal to), scattered on the upper and middle part of the flank; red spots are few (less than 10), large (larger than half of the pupil), ocellated, organized in one or two irregular longitudinal rows on the median part of the body, with no red spots in larger specimens than about 310 mm SL; the head is short (length 19.7-23.6% SL); the maxilla is short (length of maxilla 5.8-7.4% SL); the mouth is small (length of mouth gape 8.6-10.8% SL); the caudal peduncle is deep (depth 8.1-9.3% SL); the lateral line has 106-115 scales; 22-26 scale rows between dorsal-fin origin and lateral line; 17-20 scale rows between anal-fin origin and lateral line; 14-17 scale rows between the origin of the adipose fin and lateral line; and there are 18-20 gill rakers on the outer side of the first gill arch (Ref. 138501).