The fish has a silvery belly and a greyish-silvery back with faint, grey, wavy vertical lines above the lateral lines in adults. The lateral line scales and the base of the pectoral fin are yellow, and the pectoral axil is black. The scales are small and deciduous. There is a distinct median keel on the nuchal spine, and the chest is fully scaled. The mouth is horizontal, pointing slightly downward when protracted, with the line of the closed mouth passing below the eye. There is a narrow brown band around the end of the snout. The lower edge of the operculum and the margin of the supraorbital are serrated. The third and fourth dorsal and the third anal spines are anteriorly serrated.