| Main Ref. | Wüstemann, O. and B. Kammerad, 1995 |
| Appearance refers to | Male; Female |
| Bones in OsteoBase |
| Specialized organs | no special organs |
| Different appearance | |
| Different colors | different colors during breeding season only |
| Remarks | Male slighly more colorful and with breeding tubercles on head and body. |
| Striking features | none |
| Body shape lateral | fusiform / normal |
| Cross section | oval |
| Dorsal head profile | clearly concave |
| Type of eyes | more or less normal |
| Type of mouth/snout | more or less normal |
| Position of mouth | sub-terminal/inferior |
| Type of scales | |
| Diagnosis |
Diagnosed from congeners in Europe by the following characters: subinferior or subterminal mouth; subequal jaw, upper jaw slightly longer; upper lip tip about level with center of eye; not projecting snout; articulation of lower jaw distinctly behind anterior margin of eye; horizontal branch of preoperculum shorter than vertical branch; and 40-50 + 1-2 scales on lateral line (Ref. 59043). Rarely longer than 30 cm TL; normally 47-52 scales in lateral line; anal fin concave; caudal fin forked with 19 rays (Ref. 41616). |
| Ease of Identification | likely to be confused with closely related species. |
| Lateral Lines | Interrupted: No |
| Scales on lateral line | 41 - 50 |
| Pored lateral line scales | |
| Scales in lateral series | |
| Scale rows above lateral line | 7 - 9 |
| Scale rows below lateral line | 3 - 5 |
| Scales around caudal peduncle | |
| Barbels | |
| Gill clefts (sharks/rays only) | |
| Gill rakers | |
| on lower limb | |
| on upper limb | |
| total | 6 - 11 |
| Vertebrae | |
| preanal | 22 - 26 |
| total | 42 - 46 |
| Attributes | no striking attributes |
| Fins number | 1 |
| Finlets No. | Dorsal 0 - 0 |
| Ventral 0 - 0 | |
| Spines total | 2 - 3 |
| Soft-rays total | 7 - 9 |
| Adipose fin | absent |
| Attributes | forked; more or less normal |
| Fins number | 1 |
| Spines total | 3 - 3 |
| Soft-rays total | 8 - 9 |
| Pectoral | Attributes more or less normal |
| Spines 1 | |
| Soft-rays 15 - 17 | |
| Pelvics | Attributes more or less normal |
| Position abdominal before origin of D1 | |
| Spines 2 | |
| Soft-rays 7 - 9 |