Distinguished by having the following combination of characters: presence of 10-15 soft serrations and absence of spines on the posterior margin of preopercle; snout almost twice as long as horizontal diameter of pigmented eye; horizontal eye window 2.5-2.7% SL; two median and in the holotype also a pair of small basibranchial tooth patches; 10-11 developed rakers on anterior gill arch; sagittal otolith with undivided sulcus; and sulcus-length in percentage of sagitta-length 50-55 (Ref. 78399).