This species is distinguished from its congeners in the Mediterranean Sea basin and adjacent Mesopotamia by the following characters: with 17-21 gill rakers on the lower part of the first gill arch; pelvic-fin origin usually below the second branched dorsal-fin ray; branched dorsal-fin rays 8½; scales between the tip of the pectoral and pelvic-fin origins usually 2-3; without tubercles behind the upper posterior eye margin. Also distinguished by a minimum K2P distance of 2.7% in its COI barcode region against G. rufa, and 3.9% against the geographically adjacent G. turcica (Ref. 128952).