The turkey moray (''Gymnothorax meleagris''),also known as the guineafowl moray or as the white-mouth/whitemouth moray is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of marine

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Muraenidae 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, ...

Description

The turkey moray is a medium size moray which can reach a maximum length of 120 cm, but specimens usually encountered are much smaller. Its serpentine in shape body has a dark brown to black background color dotted with numerous small white spots uniformly distributed. The inside of its mouth is completely white. Gymnothorax meleagris02

Distribution and habitat

The white-mouth moray is widespread throughout 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 ...

area from eastern coast of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

included, until

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

and from south

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

. This is a relatively rare moray even within its distribution area except in

, where it seems to be common. It likes shallow waters from lagoons and reefs rich in coral and fish life until deep, spending time in holes in the reef to quickly emerge to grasp passing fish by surprise attack. They sense prey by detecting smell through the water.

Biology

The turkey moray seems to be equally active day and night and feeds on small fish and occasionally

crustaceans Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of Arthropod, arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquat ...

.Hobson, E.S., 1974. Feeding relationships of teleostean fishes on coral reefs in Kona, Hawaii. Fish. Bull. 72(4):915-1031.

References

External links

*http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=217503 *http://eol.org/pages/204334/details *http://doris.ffessm.fr/fiche2.asp?fiche_numero=1565 *http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=161210 * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2366562 meleagris Fish of Hawaii Fish described in 1795