Dark brown covered in fine white spots, with a bright yellow mouth lining shown when it gapes.
To 180 cm. Dark yellow-brown, covered in pale spots that are small near the head — smaller than the pupil — and become large and widely spaced towards the tail. That front-to-back change in spot size is the pattern to look for. The snout is short and blunt.
The mouth is the diagnostic. The inside is bright yellow and it is visible every time the eel gapes, which morays do constantly to move water over the gills. The yellow-edged moray has a yellow-green edge to the fins and a dark blotch at the gill opening instead. The honeycomb moray has a dense black-on-white network rather than separate spots on brown.
It has been recorded between 2 and 271 m but is usually at 30 m or deeper, so Red Sea sightings tend to come on deeper wall and slope dives rather than shallow reef. It hunts fish and cephalopods at night and spends the day with its head out of a hole. The open jaw is breathing, not threat.
The skin mucus is toxic. It contains a protein that destroys red blood cells, it is bitter, and it appears to work as a defence against predators. The practical points are that the species is poisonous to eat, that handling it can irritate skin and is dangerous near eyes, mouth or an open wound, and that a bite carries mucus contamination on top of the usual infection risk. Do not hand-feed, do not reach into holes, do not handle.
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.
