D1 I/3; D2 absent; P1 12; P 2 7; A 38. Color of back greenish black, flanks silvery dashed with gold. Dorsal and caudal fin margins dusky. Body fusiform, strongly compressed; abdomen sharply keeled with 17 to 21 pre-pelvic and 6 or 7 postpelvic scutes. Maxilla short, itstip truncate, not reaching the gill-opening. Dorsal-fin origin nearer to snout-tip than to caudal-fin base.