This species is distinguished from all its congeners, except H. microstomus, H. margaritifer, H. roseopunctatus by the following set of characters: a few teeth on upper jaw (23-39 per premaxilla) and the pale dots over body (vs. having either larger number of teeth and/or dark spots on body); differs microstomus, roseopunctatus by having 23-39 slender teeth per premaxilla (vs. robust premaxillary teeth, 8-14 in microstomus and 6-16 in roseopunctatus); differs from H. margaritifer by having slender premaxillary teeth (vs. robust), by having a stouter body, head depth 68.1-75.1 % HL (vs. 52.6-66.7% HL), and by having the dorsal-fin spine shorter, its length similar to head length - dorsal-fin spine 57.9-84.9 % of predorsal length (vs. dorsal-fin spine clearly longer than head length and usually almost similar to predorsal length-dorsal-fin spine 71.4-111.1 % of predorsal length) (Ref. 124776).

Description: D II,7 with a spinelet; A I,4; perctoral I,6; pelvic fin I,5.