Distinguished by the following characteristics: usually reddish brown, sometimes mottled with black or pale grey spots with black streak above maxilla; juveniles with black saddle blotch on peduncle; oblong body, compressed, depth contained 2.8-3.2 times in SL; head length 2.5-2.7 in SL; convex interorbital area; enlarged serrae at angle of preopercle, forming rounded lobe set off by the indentation immediately above; nostrils subequal in juveniles, posterior nostrils about twice that of anterior ones in adults (Ref. 89707).