Buried to the eyes on open sand, with the eyes set right at the front of a flat head.
A large snake eel reaching about a metre, with a broad, flattened head and — the genus mark — the eyes set far forward, close to the tip of the snout and above the front of the upper jaw. That placement separates Brachysomophis from Ophichthus at a glance: the Napoleon snake eel Ophichthus bonaparti has its eyes well back from the snout tip and a yellow face patterned with dark spots. Colour here is variable and unreliable, running through brown, olive, grey and reddish with fine mottling, so the head shape and eye position do the work. The reptilian snake eel Brachysomophis henshawi is the other common member of the genus and is typically redder about the head with bolder white and dark blotching.
An ambush predator. It lies buried with only the top of the head and the eyes clear of the sediment and the jaws slightly parted, and takes fish and crustaceans that pass within reach by lunging upward out of the sand. Most of the animal is in a tunnel below, dug tail-first with the hard pointed tail the family uses for the purpose. Active mainly at dusk and through the night, though buried heads are found by day.
Recorded from about 2 to 25 m on open sand and silt, including fine black sand. It withdraws completely if the sediment near it is stirred, and the head does not come back up for some time, so the working approach is from a low angle at a distance with fins kept clear of the bottom. It is a strong biter with the head of a predator, and the mouth is best left more than an arm’s length away.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
