''Echidna nocturna'' is a

moray eel Moray eels, or Muraenidae (), are a family of eels whose members are found worldwide. There are approximately 200 species in 15 genera which are almost exclusively marine, but several species are regularly seen in brackish water, and a few are f ...

found in the eastern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, in the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...

and around Peru and the Galapagos Islands.''Echidna nocturna''
at www.fishbase.org. It was first named by Cope in 1872, and is commonly known as the freckled moray or the palenose moray. It was discovered that ''Echidna nocturna'' and ''Muraena acutis'' are the same species.

Description

''Echidna nocturna'' has a long snake-like body with an average vertebral count of 120.4 vertebrae. The average length of an adult eel is 48.26 cm. Juveniles range in size from 8.52 cm to 35.48 cm with the average length being 22 cm. They weigh between 1.12g and 296.1 g with the average weight being 49.62 grams. It is gray-brown in color with rows of small white spots along its body. Its nose is paler in color compared to the rest of its body.

Habitat and distribution

''Echidna nocturna'' habitats are distributed throughout the tropical Eastern

. They are found in both

intertidal The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of Marine habitat, habitats with var ...

and

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

habitats. Juveniles typically reside in rocky shore tidepools while adults reside near the tidepools or in coral reefs. Like other moray eels they have a pelagic larval phase.

Diet

''Echidna nocturna'' is an exclusively carnivorous species. They have a low niche breadth, meaning they are specialized feeders. Their diet consists primarily of the shrimp ''

Penaeoidea Penaeoidea is the larger of the two superfamilies of prawns. It comprises eight families, three of which are known only from fossils. The fossil record of the group stretches back to '' Aciculopoda'', discovered in Famennian sediments in Oklahom ...

''. They also consume crabs ('' Brachyura)'', stomapoda, and some other small animals. ''Echidna nocturna'' are sometimes host to ''Theletrum lamothei'', a species of

digenea Digenea (Gr. ''Dis'' – double, ''Genos'' – race) is a class of trematodes in the Platyhelminthes phylum, consisting of parasitic flatworms (known as ''flukes'') with a syncytial tegument and, usually, two suckers, one ventral and one oral. ...

n parasite. This species of ''Theletrum'' was first discovered in the intestine of ''Echidna nocturna''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q655217 nocturna Fish described in 1872 Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope