Differs from its congeners in Indochina by the combination of the following characters: body with 8-13 quite regular dark bars usually meeting their homologues on back; bars not very contrasted and usually faint on lower half of body; bars on caudal peduncle not reaching ventral midline; bars on predorsal part of body not extending downward beyond lateral stripe in specimens larger than 40 mm SL; prominent lateral stripe often darker than bars; lateral line complete; pelvic fin origin below branched dorsal-fin rays 1-2; caudal fin with 9+8 branched rays; pelvic fin with 8 rays; a complete black bar at caudal-fin base; eye diameter 9.1-21.3% HL, located dorsally and interorbital width 15.0-34.8% HL; caudal peduncle 1.3-1.6 times longer than deep, its depth 10.2-12.6% SL; lateral head length 22.0-25.2% SL; short crests on caudal peduncle; caudal fin deep and emarginate; median caudal-fin ray 63.7-77.6% of length of upper caudal-fin lobe (Ref. 40772).

Description: dorsal fin with 4 simple and 8 1/2 branched rays; anal fin with 3 simple and 5 1/2 branched rays (Ref. 40772).