Can be diagnosed from all members of the Rasbora trifasciata-group by having male cephalic tubercles nodular with blunt tips and the base lower than the skin surface in a narrow pit. Other combination of characters useful to further distinguished from the other members of this group in northwestern Sumatra include the following: cranial superficial neuromasts having basal plates confluent with the skin surface with no peripheral structure surrounding them; first

infraorbital (lachrymal) with a posterodorsal process and a concave dorsal margin; lachrymal region peripherally pigmented with an unpigmented central area; the dorsomedial branch of the supraorbital canal extending toward the posterior margin of the frontal; an axial streak extending anteriorly and terminating between the verticals through the dorsal-fin origin and the

pelvic-fin insertion; the presence of cephalic tubercles only in males; a transverse scale count anterior to the dorsal-fin origin and pelvic-fin insertion of K4/1/2K; 12 scales around caudal peduncle; unpigmented opercular flap; a basal reticulation pattern comprising of networks of well-developed parenthesis-shaped bars on the midlateral surface of the body; a maximum vertical coverage of the basal reticulation by three and a half longitudinal scale rows; and pelvic-fin rays i,8 (Ref. 85846).

Description: Dorsal-fin rays ii, 7½; anal-fin rays ii, 5½; pectoral-fin rays i, 11-13; pelvic-fin rays i, 8; gill rakers on 1st gill arch 12-13; all scales perforated, 24-26 + 2-3; scales in lateral line series 25-27 + 2-3 (Ref. 94947).