A. taurus can be told apart from congeners by the following combination of characters: infraorbitals and preopercle covered by thick skin and not visible externally (vs. covered by thin skin and externally visible in other Aspidoras); nuchal plate reduced, covered by thick skin and not visible externally (vs. well developed, covered by thin skin and visible externally); lateral line absent posterior to two small lateral line ossicles (vs. lateral line present on at least first body plate).