Honeycomb moray

Gymnothorax favagineus

Also known as Laced moray, Tessellate moray, Leopard moray eel, Blackspotted moray

SaltwaterFish

Honeycomb moray (Gymnothorax favagineus) — jon hanson from london, UK · CC BY-SA 2.0

Care at a glance

Temperature: 75–81°F (24–27°C)
pH: 8.0–8.4
Adult size: 70.9 in (180 cm)
Minimum tank: 291 gal (1,100 L)
Temperament: Aggressive
Social behavior: Solitary
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Difficult
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Common
Reef safe: Reef safe with caution
Origin: Native to the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea, living on coral and rocky reefs where it hides in large caves by day.
Family: Muraenidae

Overview

This eel is only for keepers with a very large fish-only system, a minimum of around 1100 litres and realistically much more given its potential size. Keep it at 24 to 27 C and pH 8.0 to 8.4 with a massive cave and a heavy, clamped lid. It ignores corals but eats any fish or crustacean it can catch, so pick large, tough tankmates only. Feed silversides, whole shrimp, squid and chunks of marine fish on a stick, and keep hands out while it is hungry.

In the wild

The honeycomb moray is a big pale eel covered in a dense pattern of black blotches that look like a honeycomb or leopard print. It is one of the larger morays offered in the trade and grows into a genuinely huge animal. It hunts fish and cephalopods at night and can be bold and snappy at feeding time.

Good to know

Gymnothorax favagineus is reported to reach up to 3 metres in the wild, though most specimens seen are well under 2 metres. The density of its black spotting varies a lot with location, from fine speckles to broad blotches. Like all morays it breathes by constantly opening and closing its mouth to pump water over its gills, which looks threatening but is normal.

Did you know

The amount of black on a honeycomb moray varies so much between reefs that heavily spotted and lightly spotted fish were once thought to be different species.