This species is distinguished from all its congeners by the following characters: presence of minute bony hooklets in all fins of both mature females and mature males (vs. absence of bony hooks in females); differs from all congeners except australis, cosmops, cotinho, diktyota, forestii, lineomaculata, oligolepis, pirahan, pyrophthalma, sanctaefilomenae, uirapuru by having a reticulated body colour pattern, formed by a dark pigmentation on the posterior margin of the scales (vs. none); differs from all congeners except australis, cosmops, cotinho, diktyota, forestii, lineomaculata, oligolepis, pirahan, pyrophthalma, sanctaefilomenae, uirapuru by having a dark blotch on the caudal peduncle preceded by a lighter area (vs. absence); differs from australis, forestii, oligolepis, sanctaefilomenae by having the prepelvic region flattened (vs. compressed laterally), and by the colouration of the eyes in live specimens, blue ventrally and yellowish to orange dorsally (vs. silver ventrally and reddish dorsally); further differs from oligolepis by the number of anal-fin rays 16-20, mode = 18 (vs. 18-24, mode = 21), and from forestii, australis, sanctaefilomenae by the number of lateral line scales 28-32 (vs. 23-26 in forestii, 23-27 in australis, sanctaefilomenae); further differs from cosmops by the number of transversal scale rows above and below lateral line 5 (vs. 4); differs from diktyota, uirapuru by the presence of a dark round blotch over caudal peduncle and reaching the base of the caudal-fin rays (vs. dark blotch elongated over the caudal peduncle and reaching the distal end of median caudal-fin rays), and by the number of circumpeduncular scale rows 13-14 (vs. 12); differs from pyrophthalma by the number of transversal scale rows below lateral line 5 (vs. 4); differs from cotinho, pirahan, lineomaculata by the absence of a longitudinal series of dark or light spots on the dorsal or lateral portion of the body (vs. longitudinal series of dark spots on dorsal portion in cotinho, light spots on dorsal portion in pirahan and dark spots on the lateral body in lineomaculata); differs from the three last species by the humeral blotch extending two scales horizontally in its dorsal portion (vs. one scale in lineomaculata and three scales in cotinho, pirahan) (Ref. 124591).