Body color brownish to purplish red; head primarily red; upper part of opercular membrane blackish; each scale with vertical silvery white line. Four to five oblique scale rows on cheek; body depth 2.3-2.7 in SL; head length (HL) 2.4-2.85 in SL; snout length 3.75-4.35 in HL; maxilla extending posteriorly from below front of pupil to below center of the eye, upper jaw length 2.7-2.85 in HL; premaxillary groove about a vertical at front edge of orbit; anterior end of nasal bone with 2 diverging spines; medial margin of nasal bone spineless (however, a Seychelles specimen 20.6 cm has one small spinule on the edge); 1-3 spinules on anterior and posterior margins of nasal fossa; suborbital bones' upper edge smooth anteriorly, becoming slightly serrate posteriorly (serrae as recumbent spinules); adults' preopercular spines long, 2.85-3.8 in HL (at least equal to orbit diameter). 2 opercular spines with the lower nearly as long or equal to the upper spine; 4th dorsal spine longest, .5-2.95 in HL; membranes of spinous dorsal fin not incised; 3rd anal spine 1.5-1.7 in HL (Ref. 27370). Has a high body similar to S. spiniferum, but differs in coloration and does not get as large.