White ghost moray
| White ghost moray | ||||||||||||
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Pseudechidna brummeri in a saltwater aquarium |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Pseudechidna | ||||||||||||
| Bleeker , 1863 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Pseudechidna brummeri | ||||||||||||
| (Bleeker, 1859) |
The white ghost moray ( Pseudechidna brummeri ), also known as the white ribbon moray , is a very slender species of moray eels (Muraenidae).
Appearance
White ghost morays are about 100 to 110 cm long, but remain very slender. The body is ribbon-like, usually white to pale brown or beige. The species has a high, fleshy fin edge with a white edge that occasionally shimmers blue. The head and muzzle are short, the eyes large with yellow irises . The white ghost moray shows many small black dots on the upper and lower jaws, which are randomly distributed and do not form any patterns.
The mouth is slightly rounded and therefore looks a bit blunt. The gill openings are small and point-shaped. The two front nostrils end in up to 8 mm long tubular appendages that can be expanded like a funnel. The two rear nostrils are above the eye area. Like all moray eels, they have a very well developed olfactory ability. They perceive the smell of feed even in the smallest concentrations and then search very persistently for the source.
Males are more powerfully built, the head of the females is narrower. The sexes also differ in their teeth.
Habitat and Distribution
Ghost morays occur in the Indo-Pacific from East Africa to Samoa , French Polynesia and north to the Ryūkyū Islands . They live hidden in caves, in shallow coral reefs and sandy lagoons , sometimes up to a depth of 50 meters.
Similar to nasal moray eels, white ghost moray eels like to hide in caves in sandy substrate.
Mix-ups
In some books and also in specialist shops, this species is incorrectly referred to as Uropterygius concolor . The latter type is more brown to yellowish in color. The fin hem is limited to the tail end only. In addition, her face is missing the many small black dots.
Another confusion with the slightly stronger spotted moray ( Gymnothorax griseus ) also often occurs. With this species, however, the dots on the face clearly form a line pattern.
A name confusion with the nasal moray ( Rhinomuraena quaesita ) is occasionally found in the literature and in relevant forums, but there is no actual morphological similarity here.
literature
- Marco Lichtenberger: Moray eels in the seawater aquarium . Natur und Tier-Verlag, Münster 2008, ISBN 3-866-59081-4 .
- Bleeker, P. (1863): Septième mémoire sur la faune ichthyologique de l'île de Timor . Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor de Dierkunde (1): 262–276.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c A. E. Schuyler, EE Spamer: Proceedings of The Academy of Natural Sciences. Vol. 147, 1997, pp. 103-105.
Web links
- White ghost moray on Fishbase.org (English)
- Pseudechidna brummeri - moray eel. on: meerwasser-lexikon.de