Details
Gymnothorax funebris
The green moray is a large Atlantic reef eel. Active across day and night, it peers from holes and crevices while monitoring passing prey.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
It uses coral reefs, rocky reefs, and shallow seas rich in cracks and caves. By day it often shelters, becoming more mobile in dim light or at night.
Length is about 100-250 cm and weight about 10-30 kg. The body is actually brownish, but mucus over the skin can give it a green cast.
It lives singly or loosely spaced, often returning to favored shelters. The open-and-close mouth movement also pumps water over the gills, not only signals threat.
It is carnivorous, taking fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods. The flexible body lets it push into reef cracks and flush hidden prey.
Eggs are released into the sea, and the transparent larvae drift as leptocephali. Young later settle into reef crevices and begin bottom life.
Its status is listed as Least Concern. It can be observed safely with distance, but its strong jaws make hand contact a bad idea.
