| Main Ref. | Armbruster, J.W., 2002 |
| Appearance refers to | |
| Bones in OsteoBase |
| Specialized organs | |
| Different appearance | |
| Different colors | |
| Remarks |
| Striking features | striking type of mouth |
| Body shape lateral | elongated |
| Cross section | compressed |
| Dorsal head profile | more or less straight |
| Type of eyes | more or less normal |
| Type of mouth/snout | sucker-like |
| Position of mouth | sub-terminal/inferior |
| Type of scales | |
| Diagnosis |
Body coloration brown to black, with large white to yellow spots on the sides. Ventral surface from head to anus largely naked in adults, few small platelets on skin ventral to pectoral girdle. Lateral plates unkeeled although ventral row may have moderately elongate odontodes forming 1 or more keel-like rows on caudal peduncle. Cheek plates with 20-40 hypertrophied odontodes in adults. Caudal fin emarginate. Lateral line plates 22-24; below dorsal fin 7-8; interdorsal 3-5; adipose caudal 8-10; postanal 11-13; caudal peduncle 5. |
| Ease of Identification |
| Lateral Lines | Interrupted: No |
| Scales on lateral line | |
| Pored lateral line scales | |
| Scales in lateral series | |
| Scale rows above lateral line | |
| Scale rows below lateral line | |
| Scales around caudal peduncle | |
| Barbels | |
| Gill clefts (sharks/rays only) | |
| Gill rakers | |
| on lower limb | |
| on upper limb | |
| total | |
| Vertebrae | |
| preanal | |
| total |
| Attributes | |
| Fins number | |
| Finlets No. | Dorsal |
| Ventral | |
| Spines total | 2 - 2 |
| Soft-rays total | 7 - 7 |
| Adipose fin |
| Attributes | more or less truncate; more or less normal |
| Fins number | |
| Spines total | 1 - 1 |
| Soft-rays total | 3 - 4 |
| Pectoral | Attributes |
| Spines 1 | |
| Soft-rays 6 - 6 | |
| Pelvics | Attributes |
| Position | |
| Spines 1 | |
| Soft-rays 5 - 5 |