Black polygons on white, and the largest-patterned moray on these reefs.
To about 180 cm, white to pale yellow covered in close-packed black polygons whose size increases with the size of the fish — a small individual is finely spotted and a large one carries patches several centimetres across. The pattern is variable enough between regions that several names have been applied to what is now treated as one species.
It rests with the head out of a crevice by day, opening and closing the mouth to pass water over the gills — respiration, not threat — and hunts fish and cephalopods at night. Morays have poor eyesight and hunt by smell, which is why hands near a crevice are the usual cause of a bite. It tolerates a slow approach to the head and withdraws if crowded from above. Recorded from about 3 to 40 m.
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.
