Marbled Reef Eel

Teeth in jaw roughly 25 in single series, anterior enlarged fang-like and depressible; vomerine teeth small. Mouth large (44% head length) does not fully close, reaching well beyond eyes. Lower jaw slightly prognathous, upper jaw blunt. Eyes small, roughly the same size as branchial opening, and continuous with surrounding skin. Branchial opening slanted posteriorly, below midline. Two branchial pores, three mandibular pores, four suborbital pores, and posterior nasal opening above and in front of eye. Head length roughly 7 times total length; preanal length about equal to tail length, posterior third laterally compressed.

A benthic species (Ref. 75154) which occurs inshore (Ref. 7300).

The speckled moray, or Griffin's moray (Gymnothorax obesus) is a moray eel of the genus Gymnothorax, found in Australia and around the offshore islands off Northland and the Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand at depths down to 100 m, in reef areas of broken rock. Their length is between 40 and 200 cm.