The lesser thrush eel, also known as the common worm eel and the spaghetti eel, (''Moringua microchir'') is an

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

in the family

Moringuidae The Moringuidae are a small family of eels commonly known as spaghetti eels or worm eels, although the latter name is also shared with other families of eels. Moringuid eels are found in shallow tropical waters worldwide. They range from about ...

(spaghetti/worm eels).''Moringua microchir''
at www.fishbase.org. It was described by

Pieter Bleeker Pieter Bleeker (10 July 1819 – 24 January 1878) was a Dutch medical doctor, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. He was famous for the ''Atlas Ichthyologique des Indes Orientales Néêrlandaises'', his monumental work on the fishes of East Asia ...

in 1853.Bleeker, P., 1853 ef. 16900''Derde bijdrage tot de kennis der ichthyologische fauna van Amboina.'' Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië v. 4: 91–130. It is a

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

, marine eel which is known from East Africa,

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

, the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yona ...

, and the southern

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

. It typically dwells at a depth range of 3–20 m, with juveniles inhabiting

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...

and

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

s, adult females leading a benthic lifestyle in shallow oceanic waters, and adult males living in the pelagic zone. Adults breed offshore. Males can reach a maximum

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

of 47 cm. The lesser thrush eel's diet consists primarily of

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

s and bony fish.Food items reported for ''Moringua microchir''
at www.fishbase.org.

References

Moringuidae Fish described in 1853 {{Anguilliformes-stub