The fish has a slender, fusiform, elongate, and moderately compressed body with two postmaxillary processes. It features small conical teeth on the dentary and vomer, while the premaxilla and palatines lack teeth. The supratemporal band of scales is indistinct, and both the dorsal and anal fins are without scales. The upper body exhibits a brownish-bronze coloration, with a thin, straight tan stripe about one scale wide extending from the orbit to the caudal fin. Above and parallel to this stripe, there are two thin, irregular, and usually interrupted stripes of the same color. The lower body is silvery white, and the axil of the pectoral fins is black.