A large eastern Pacific moray, dark brown covered in fine pale speckles, in crevices with the head out.
To about 170 cm. A slender head with a pointed snout, and the body dark brown to greenish-brown peppered with numerous small white spots — the speckling shows on whatever part of the head and neck is out of the hole, which is usually all you get.
The Panamic green moray is the one to rule out and it is plain: brown or green with at most a few flecks, and those confined to the rear half. The snout shape backs it up, pointed here and blunt there.
Three to over a hundred and fifty metres on rock, and also on sand and mud. It lies up in holes and crevices by day and hunts fish, crustaceans and cephalopods. No injuries are on record for it and there are no ciguatera reports.
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.
