Distinguished from its congeners endemic to the Amazon and Orinoco Basins and the Guyana Shield in having many pectoral-fin rays 20-22; and a color pattern of oblique and undivided thin pale bands, less than one-quarter width of dark bands, with straight high-contrast margins, which extend to the dorsal midline on the anterior half of the body, and of which many are interrupted at the ventral margin of the hypaxial muscles along the anterior two-thirds of the body. Differs further from congeners endemic to the Amazon-Orinoco basins and the Guyana Shield in having the following unique combination of characters: clear (unpigmented) patch at the caudal end of the anal-fin membrane in specimens 6.0-23.5 TL; and bands never divided to form band pairs (Ref. 55508).