Description: body slender to moderately slender; head rather short; mouth small; frontal profile rounded; caudal fin rounded (Ref. 52307).

Coloration: body rusty reddish; 10-12 vertical dark bars may be visible on body, depending on behavioral situation; dark horizontal line from eye to corner of mouth, another from eye to posterior edge of opercle; scales on lower body parts with reddish-brown dots at center and often bluish-edged, more obvious in males than in females; rows of reddish maculae or short stripes in dorsal and caudal fins; following Skelton (2001), males turn bright red when courting (Ref. 52307).