Schistura notostigma differs from all congeners from peninsular India and Sri Lanka by the

combination of the following characters: 6-7 wide, brown bars on the posterior half of the body; width of interspaces equal ½-1 times the width of the bars; black bar on caudal-fin base complete, narrower than the width of the interspaces on the body; emarginate caudal fin; incomplete lateral line ending beneath the dorsal-fin base; adpressed pelvic fin surpassing the anus; 7½ branched rays on dorsal fin; pelvic-fin origin beneath first branched dorsal-fin ray; 4-8 pre-operculo-mandibular pores; and suborbital flap in males absent (Ref. 116162).