Oryzias woworae is distinguished from all other ricefishes by an autapomorphic color pattern of both sexes in life: the ventral surface of head and body anterior to pelvic fins, dorsal portion of pectoral fins, dorsal-fin base, posterior portion of anal-fin base, caudal peduncle, and dorsal and ventral portions of caudal fin are brilliant red; the midlateral scales from just posterior to the eye to the caudal-fin base and the body scales anterior to the anal fin and below midlateral scales are steel blue. The operculum and base of the pectoral fin are silvery. Oryzias woworae has a truncate, rather than lunate or emarginate, caudal fin that distinguishes it from the large, pelagic Sulawesi ricefish in the genus Adrianichthys and five species of Oryzias: O. bonneorum, O. nebulosus, O. nigrimas, O. orthognathus, and O. sarasinorum. Oryzias woworae is readily distinguished from other Oryzias with a truncate caudal fin by an hour-glass shaped, rather than rounded, ossified portion of the mesethmoid with no cartilage on its midlateral margins, like the ethmoid of some of the larger, pelagic Sulawesi ricefishes (Ref. 84259).