''Gymnothorax pictus'', the painted moray, paintspotted moray or peppered moray, is a moray eel. The

Chamorro Chamorro may refer to: * Chamorro people, the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific * Chamorro language, an Austronesian language indigenous to The Marianas * Chamorro Time Zone, the time zone of Guam and the Northern Mari ...

name of the eel is ''títugi''.

Description

The species is pale with purplish speckles, which gather together with age. Young of the species have no spots or bars; they are pale purplish with white bellies. Its maximum length is 140 cm. The peppered moray eats small fish and

crustaceans 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 ...

. ''G. pictus'' is similar to '' Gymnothorax griseus''. While hunting for prey, they may be completely out of the water or may leap out of water. It is dangerous to eat because it is poisonous.

Taxonomy

The peppered moray was named and described by Solander in an unpublished manuscript. Richardson said the fish might be ''Muraena siderea''. Richardson later proved the fish was different by pointing out the difference in coloration. When the names were published as separate species, it was unknown if they were really different species. Kuep gave the species name as ''Sidera pantherina''. Blecker later changed it to its current name. The reason why the name is still the same is because of all three people's work.

Habitat

The peppered moray can commonly be found in tropical marine waters of the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

and from islands of the tropical

Eastern Pacific 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 ...

. They can also be found in very shallow water on

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

flats. Places where the species has been found include Suva Reef, the

Fiji Islands Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

, Clarion Island, and the Revillagigedo Islands.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2181528 pictus Fish of Hawaii Fish described in 1789 Taxa named by Jonas Niclas Ahl