This species is distinguished by the following characters: D VII + 9; pectoral fins 14 or 15; gill rakers 7-8 + 20-21 = 27-29; measurements for adults (for subadult in parentheses) in % SL: body depth at first dorsal-fin origin 21-23 (23); body depth at anus 19 (18); caudal-peduncle depth 9.2-9.3 (9.5); maximum head depth 19-20 (19); head depth through eye 14-15 (16); interorbital length 7.2-8.3 (7.8); head length 28-30 (29); snout length 9.2-9.6 (9.0); postorbital length 12 (12); orbit length 7.5-7.9 (8.4); upper jaw length 9.4-9.7 (9.8); barbel length 19-20 (17); caudal-peduncle length 21-23 (24); caudal-fin length 28-29 (29); anal-fin height 12-13 (15); pelvic-fin length 21-22 (20); pectoral-fin length 20-21 (21); first dorsal-fin height 19 (20); second dorsal-fin height 14 (16); colour of subadult when fresh: upper lobe of caudal fin with 3 red-brown obli ue bars including 1 bar close to tip (5 bars in preserved adult); lower caudal-fin lobe covered on inner (dorsal) two-thirds with dark red-brown pigmentation, the distal-most (ventral) 3 rays mostly unpigmented or whitish; barbels white; body dorsally darkened and head entirely dark apart from silvery scale regions below and behind eyes; preserved fish dark brown, ventrally lighter; bars on upper caudal-fin lobe and lower lobe pigmentation not or only weakly retained in preserved fish (Ref. 102936).