Snowflake Moray

The snowflake moray is the moray eel most often kept in aquariums. The dark, branching blotches on a white or cream background and the yellow dots inside them give it a snowflake look; its nostrils are tubular and yellow. It belongs to the same family as the Mediterranean moray (Muraena helena). In the aquarium it usually stays at 50–75 cm.

The constant opening and closing of a moray's mouth is not aggression but breathing. This species has blunt teeth suited to crushing crustaceans and has a calmer character than other morays. Still, its bite is painful and can become infected; it should not be hand-fed.

It lives on shallow reef flats, in tide pools and along rocky shores of the Indo-Pacific. It hides in rock crevices during the day and hunts crabs and shrimp at night.

• Volume: at least 400 liters; the tank length should be at least twice the moray's length.
• Escape prevention: morays are escape artists. Even the smallest gap in the lid must be closed, and holes for cables and hoses must be plugged with sponge.
• Decor: pipes open at both ends and caves where it can hide its whole body; the rocks must be secured.
• Water: salinity 1.020–1.025 specific gravity, pH 8.1–8.4, temperature 24–27°C. Since it is a messy eater, a strong filter and a protein skimmer.
• Reef compatibility: reef safe with caution: it leaves corals alone, but eats shrimp, crabs and small fish that fit in its mouth.

Carnivorous. Shell-on shrimp, krill, mussels, squid and fish meat; offer it with a feeding stick or tongs. Its eyesight is poor and its sense of smell is strong; it finds food by smelling it first. Adults are fed 2–3 times a week. Live freshwater feeder fish should not be given: they carry disease and have low nutritional value for marine fish.

During the day it often shows only its head from a crevice; once it learns the feeding time, it becomes more visible. It generally leaves fish close to its own size alone, but it may catch small fish sleeping at night.

Good companions: medium and large fish: tangs, large angelfish, foxface, lionfish, triggerfish, large wrasses.

Avoid: small fish, shrimp and crabs, seahorses; an uncovered aquarium.

Usually kept as a single individual. In a large aquarium with enough hiding places, more than one snowflake moray can live together.

It is a pelagic spawner; its larvae spend a long time in the open sea in a flat, transparent (leptocephalus) stage. It does not breed in the aquarium.

• Escaping and drying out: the most common cause of death.
• Copper sensitivity: because of its scaleless skin, it is sensitive to copper and some medications.
• Overfeeding: obesity and liver problems.

The sexes cannot be told apart externally.