Laced moray

Netzmuräne ( Gymnothorax favagineus )

The Netzmuräne ( Gymnothorax favagineus, Syn: G. permistus ) is one of the largest, and most strikingly colored species of moray eels ( Muraenidae ).

Dissemination

The Netzmuräne lives in the Red Sea and tropical Indo-Pacific from East Africa to the Society Islands, Hawaii, and south to the Great Barrier Reef. Especially frequently it is in the Gulf of Aden. In the eastern Pacific, it comes from the southern Baja California prior to northern Colombia and the Galapagos Islands. She lives mainly in rock and outer reefs in fluid -rich areas and depths of one to 40 meters. Mostly, the animals keep deeper than four meters.

Features

Netzmuränen be up to 2.5 meters, in exceptional cases even 3 meters long. They have numerous dark spots that are surrounded by a thin white grid drawing, thus resulting in a honeycomb- like pattern. Copies may also be almost completely black. The number of dark spots increases with increasing age, their size increases, however, from. The differences in the drawing meant that the pups earlier as a separate species ( " Small Netzmuräne " (G. permistus ) ) were considered.

Netzmuränen have 140-143 vertebrae.

Way of life

Netzmuränen live individually in rocky and coral reefs. They feed mainly on cephalopods and fish. In aquariums animals kept take shrimp, mussel meat and crushed crabs. The reproductive biology of Netzmuränen is unknown. Netzmuränen are often observed here is that they can be cleaned by Putzerlippfischen or cleaner shrimp.