The body is significantly compressed. In adults, the upper jaw slightly extends beyond the margin of the eye. There are no scutes or caudal peduncle grooves and the 1st gill arch has 11–15 gill rakers. The scales on the midbody below the lateral line are partially embedded and bluntly lanceolate. The coloration is greenish grey dorsally and grey to silvery below. There are 4–8 oval or vertically elongated plumbeous blotches with most intersecting the lateral line. The dorsal and anal fins are dusky to dark, uniformly pigmented while the pectoral fins are yellow and the pelvic fins are white in adults.