Common names: English: De Buen's goby
German: De Buens-Grundel

Common synonyms: none.

Length: 3 - 4 cm.

Colouration
Transparent, yellowish sandy, whitish below, with pale saddles across back and 5 dark bars across side. Juveniles yellow brown with black reticulation.

Description
Head and body slightly flattened.
26-29 (36) scales in lateral series. 
Fins: D1 VI; D2 I+8; A I+7 P 15-16.

Food
Carnivorous?

Reproduction
Larvae in August.

Habitat
0.3 - 25 m. Sandy bottoms. Rare.

Buenia affinis
Photograph: Robert A. Patzner ©
Northern Adriatic Sea, Croatia, 5 m depth, May 1999

Literature on Buenia affinis

De Buen E., 1923: Gobius de la Peninsula Iberica y Baleares. Grupos Lesueurii, Colonianus, Affinis y Minutus. Mem. Inst. eso. Oceonaogr. 3: 121-266.

Costa G., S. Giacobbe & L. Salpietro, 1996: Taxonomic and ecological notes on Buenia affinis Iljin 1930 (Pisces: Gobiidae). Oebalia 22: 15-23. Iljin B.S., 1930: Le systeme des Gobiides. Trab. Inst. esp. Oceanogr., Madrid 2: 63.

Engin S., Keskin A.C., Akdemir T. & Seyhan D., 2014: First record of the goby Buenia affinis Iljin, 1930 (Gobiidae) from the Aegean Sea and Sea of Marmara. Zoology in the Middle East 60:368-371.

Miller P. J., 1973: The identity of Gobius affinis Kolombatovic, with notes on the systematics and biology of Pomatoschistus pictus (Malm). Annali Mus. civ. Stor. nat. Giacomo Doria.

Kovacic M., 2001: The Kvarner population of Buenia affinis (Teleostei, Gobiidae), and its presence in the Adriatic Sea. 10. Europ. Congr. Ichthyol, Prague. p. 177.

Kovacic M., 2002: A northern Adriatic population of Buenia affinis (Gobiidae). Cybium 26: 197-201.

Kovacic M., 2005: An annotated checklist of the family Gobiidae in the Adriatic Sea. Annales Ser. hist. nat. 15: 1-24.

Kovacic M., 2020: Checklist of gobies (Teleostei: Gobiidae) of the Mediterranean Sea and a key for species identification. Zootaxa 4877: 075-101.

Kovacic M. & La Mesa M., 2010: First data on reproduction and growth of Buenia affinis Iljin, 1930 (Gobiidae) in the northern Adriatic Sea. Scientia Marina 74: 561-568.

Kovacic M. & Patzner R.A., 2009: Reidentification of Buenia specimens (Gobiidae) from Banyuls-sur-Mer (France, western Mediterranean). Cybium 33: 175-176.

Kovacic M. & Patzner R.A., 2011: North-Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Gobies. In: The Biology of Gobies. (Eds: Patzner R.A. et al.) Science Publishers: 177-206.

Kovacic M., Sanda R. & Kirincic M., Zanella D., 2012: Geographic distribution of gobies (Gobiidae) in the Adriatic Sea with thirteen new records for its southern part. Cybium 36: 435-445.

Kovacic M., Ordines F. & Schliewen U., 2018: A new species of Buenia (Perciformes: Gobiidae) from the western Mediterranean slope bottoms, the redescription of Buenia jeffreysi and the first Balearic record of Buenia affinis. Zootaxa 4392: 267-288.

Kramer A., Kovacic M. & Patzner R.A., 2012: Dentition of eight species of Mediterranean Sea Gobiidae: do dentition characters of gobies reflect phylogenetic relationships? Journal of Fish Biology 80: 29-48.

Lombarte A., Miletic M. & Kovacic M. et al., 2014: Identifying Mediterranean Sea gobies using otoliths. 5th Int. symp. fish otolith res. appl., Peguera, Mallorca: Poster.

Miller P. J., 1986: Gobiidae. In: Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Volume III. (Eds.: Whitehead P.J.P. et al.) pp. 1019-1085. UNESCO, Paris.

Padoa E., 1953: Sottordine Gobiiformes. Famiglia Gobiidae in uova, larve e stadi giovanili di Teleostei. Fauna Flora Golfo Napoli, 38: 648-678.

Patzner R.A. & H. Moosleitner, 1999: Die Grundeln des Mittelmeeres. Teil 5. Kleine Grundeln des Weichbodens 1. Das Aquarium 357: 50-54.

Photograph of Buenia affinis Buenia affinis Northern Adriatic Sea, Croatia,  2 m depth, August 2017 Photograph: Roberto Pillon © Buenia affinis Northern Adriatic Sea, Croatia,  2 m depth, August 2017 Photograph: Roberto Pillon ©   Buenia affinis Northern Adriatic Sea, Croatia, 5 m depth, March 2008 Photograph: Mat Vestjens ©

Drawing of Buenia affinis

Drawing from Miller, 1986