Whitemouth moray
A dark brown moray with an even scatter of fine white spots and a pure white mouth lining, found on coral-rich Indo-Pacific reefs.
A large moray, recorded to 120 cm and commonly about 80 cm long. Head and body are dark brown, in some fish almost black, with fine white spots of similar size spread evenly over the whole animal, jaws included. The inside of the mouth is entirely white. Because a moray opens and closes its jaws to breathe, the white lining shows often, and against the spotted dark skin it is the character that identifies this species.
The yellowmouth moray, Gymnothorax nudivomer, is also dark with pale spots, but the inside of its mouth is yellow. Other white-spotted morays, such as the snowflake and honeycomb morays, have clearly different patterns. When the mouth stays closed, the fine, even scatter of spots on a dark ground is the next thing to check. FishBase uses the name turkey moray, and guineafowl moray is also used. The guineafowl puffer, Arothron meleagris, has the same species name and is not related.
Its habitat is coral-rich ground in lagoons and on seaward reefs, from the surface to about 51 m, and juveniles are often found in the intertidal zone. It feeds mainly on fishes and also takes crustaceans, hunting by smell and by ambush from holes, by day and probably at night, and often at low tide. Ciguatera poisoning has been reported from eating it. The range extends from East Africa and South Africa to the Marquesas and Mangareva, north to the Ryukyu Islands and Hawaii and south to Lord Howe Island. It is described as relatively rare everywhere except Hawaii.
Where to find:
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.
