That's A Moray Monday: The Late President's Day Edition

I've been so busy spending my day off by writing a NFWF grant proposal that I almost forgot it was Moray Monday. My bad. This week's moray gave me quite a challenge in finding decent images online. But I did manage to score the video of a captive specimen. Better than nothing, I guess.

Tessellate Moray
Gymnothorax favagineus



In Latin, the word "tessella" means "small square". A tessella is also a small cubical piece of clay, stone or glass used to make mosaics. A collection of tessella creates a pattern called a tessellation. Tessellations frequently appeared in the art of M. C. Escher. And one look at the coloration of this moray and you can understand the inspiration for the name. The Tessellate moray is grey to pale brown. It's brownish-black spots cover the head, body and fins of the species. The spots become relatively smaller as the fish grows. The species grows to 1.8 m in length, though unconfirmed reports of individuals up to 3 m long have been reported.

The Tessellate moray occurs in tropical marine waters of the Indo-West Pacific, in depths from 1 m to at least 50 m. In Australia it is known from north-western Western Australia, around the tropical north of the country and south to the central coast of New South Wales.

The Tessellate Moray has also been called the Coral eel, Giraffe eel, Honeycomb moray and Blackspotted moray.