This species can be distinguised from its congeners by the following set of characters: males lack the dark greenish grey bars on the anterior portion of the flank; males have transverse blue stripes on the unpaired fin wider than interspace. The body coloration of males can also be distinguished by a combination of the following characters: presence of transverse blue stripes in dorsal fin and one basal row of blue spots; most of the anal fins have transverse blue stripes; presence of blue bars on most portion of caudal fin; 8-10 light red bars between humeral region and the anterior part of the caudal peduncle; dorsal-fin origin anterior to anal-fin origin in males; and having 23 or 24 caudal-fin rays (Ref. 128003).