This species is distinguished from its congeners by the following set of characters: a pair of distinct free spines on frontal plate above and behind eyes, bony ridge above eye and cartilaginous ethmoidal spine in front of eyes; thin, transparent skin, scaleless and without neuromasts; anterior arch with long gill rakers 2-3 times length of gill filaments; palatines with 2-3 tooth rows; pectoral peduncle is twice as long as high; vertebrae, precaudal 14, total 56; fin rays, D 84, A 57 and pectoral 21; otolith length to height, 1.75, otolith length to colliculum length (2.1), sulcus with long pointed anterior projection (Ref. 93007).