Differs from congeners in Europe by a combination of the following characters: mouth slightly subinferior, with a slightly projecting upper lip and the tip of the lower jaw included in the upper lip; flank scales margined by a band of black pigments along their free margin, forming a regular reticulate pattern; presence of brown pigments on the inner area of the scales, especially on the upper half of the flank; brown pigments situated on the dermis under the scale, more densely set on the upper and lower extremity of the exposed part, and the pigment patches often appearing as faint longitudinal stripes between scale rows; no or little marked discontinuity between dorsal profile of head and trunk; dorso-hypural distance falling at or behind posterior margin of eye when reported forwards; lateral line scales 44-47 + 1-2; dorsal fin with 8½ branched rays; in stretched anal fin of specimens larger than about 15 cm SL, the distance between the tips of the first and the last branched rays is about equal to the depth of the caudal peduncle (Ref. 75108).

Description: dorsal fin with 3 simple and 8½ branched rays; anal fin with 3 simple and 6½ -8½ branched rays. Scale rows on caudal peduncle ½3/1/2½ (Ref. 75108).