This species is distinguished from all its congeners (except G. brevirostris, G. homalopteroidea, G. jiangxiensis, G. pappenheimi by the following characters: with a naked region of the abdomen adjacent to the ventral mid-line extending to or beyond the vent (vs. to or away from the pelvic-fin base); vertebra 4 + 31-32 (vs. 4 + 33-37); similar to G. homalopteroidea, G. pappenheimi by having smaller eyes with diameter less than the interorbital width, maxillary barbels longer than the eye diameter and the third pair of longer mental barbels extending to the pectoral-fin insertion (same three characters separates them from G. brevirostris, G. jiangxiensis); differs from G. homalopteroidea in having a smaller (vs. larger) naked region of the abdomen adjacent to the ventral mid-line extending to the anus (vs. to the anal-fin origin) and the eye diameter 20.0-25.8% of HL (vs. 10.8-13.9%); differs from G. pappenheimi in having pectoral fins extending away from (vs. beyond) the pelvic-fin insertion, with the second branched pectoral-fin ray not prolonged (vs. prolonged) and with a longer (vs. shorter) snout than the post-orbital length (Ref. 126141).