Pot arribar a fer 35 cm de llargària màxima (normalment, en fa 23).
Cos molt allargat, comprimit i de color blanc perla, lleugerament fosc al dors. Les vores de les aletes dorsal i anal són fosques en els exemplars conservats en formol.
Boca molt grossa.
3 espines i 106-116 radis tous a l'aleta dorsal i 80 radis tous a l'anal.
↑Linnaeus, C., 1758. Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. - pp. (1-4), 1-824. Holmiæ. (Salvius). [1][Enllaç no actiu]
↑Klunzinger, C. B., 1884. Die Fische des Rothen Meeres. Eine kritische Revision mit Bestimmungstabellen. I. Teil. Acanthopteri veri Owen. Stuttgart. Fische Rothen Meeres: i-ix + 1-133 + (13), Pls. 1-13.
↑Nakamura, I. i N.V. Parin, 1993. FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 15. Snake mackerels and cutlassfishes of the world (families Gempylidae and Trichiuridae). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of the snake mackerels, snoeks, escolars, gemfishes, sackfishes, domine, oilfish,. cutlassfishes, scabbardfishes, hairtails, and frostfishes known to date. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(15):136 p.
↑Kapoor, D., R. Dayal i A.G. Ponniah, 2002. Fish biodiversity of India. National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources Lucknow, Índia. 775 p.
↑Nakamura, I., 1997. Trichiuridae. Cutlassfishes. A: K.E. Carpenter i V. Niem (eds.). FAO Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Western Central Pacific.
↑Department of Fisheries Malaysia, 2009. Valid local name of Malaysian marine fishes. Department of Fisheries Malaysia. Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry. 180 p.
↑Fouda, M.M. i G.V. Hermosa, Jr., 1993. A checklist of Oman fishes. Sultan Qaboos University Press, Oman. 42 p.
↑Randall, J.E. i C. Anderson, 1993. Annotated checklist of the epipelagic and shore fishes of the Maldives Islands. Ichthyol. Bull. of the J.L.B. Smith Inst. of Ichthyol. 59:47.
↑Sommer, C., W. Schneider i J.-M. Poutiers, 1996. FAO species identification field guide for fishery purposes. The living marine resources of Somalia. FAO, Roma, Itàlia. 376 p.