A snake eel with pale yellow spots on grey, moving openly over sand and seagrass by day, unlike most snake eels.
To about 102 cm. Cylindrical with a blunt hard finless point at the tail and blunt molar-like teeth in several rows across the jaws and palate. Dark brown or green with large round pale spots, often yellow-centred but not ringed with black, and small yellow spots on the head.
That is the separation from the goldspotted eel, which has the black rings. Nothing else does it reliably at a glance.
Nought to over a hundred metres over grass beds, sand and coral rubble, and commoner along continental shores and in grassy areas. Unlike most snake eels it is regularly seen swimming openly near the bottom in clear water in daylight, which is why it is one of the more photographed eels in the Caribbean.
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.
