---
title: Dwarf Brown Moray (Gymnothorax pindae)
scientific_name: Gymnothorax pindae
common_name: Dwarf Brown Moray
taxon: Moray eel
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-25T18:25:05.415Z
updated: 2026-08-17T18:19:05.775Z
tags: Dwarf Brown Moray, Gymnothorax pindae, Moray eel, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/moray-eel/dwarf-brown-moray
---

# Dwarf Brown Moray (*Gymnothorax pindae*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Moray eel (*Muraenidae*)
- **Size:** 30 cm
- **Depth:** 1-30 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Occasional
- **Habitat:** Coral reefs, crevices, under rocks, coral rubble
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- small brown moray, light brown to yellowish with faint darker mottling
- pale eye standing out against the head
- usually only the head showing, in rubble or under a rock
- up to 34 cm

Start with the question everyone asks, because this is a good animal to answer it on.

A moray holding its mouth open at you is not threatening you. It has no gill covers to pump water with, so it has to open and close its jaws continuously to drive water over the gills. The gape is breathing. A moray that means it pulls its head back into the hole first, in an S, the way a snake does.

Morays bite two kinds of people: those who put a hand into a hole they cannot see into, and those who hand-feed. The second is the one that puts divers in clinics, because a fed moray learns to come out at the sight of a wetsuit and its eyesight is poor enough that it cannot tell a finger from the sausage that came before it.

The damage is not about force. The teeth point backward, so the animal cannot easily let go and tends to pull back with the hand still attached, and the wound is a ragged puncture full of the bacteria that live in a fish's mouth. Moray bites get infected as a matter of course. Wash it out, do not close it, and see a doctor.

This particular moray is thirty centimeters of shy brown eel that hides in coral rubble and is barely ever seen whole. It could not do serious harm if it tried.

## Also known as

- **English:** pinda moray
- **Hebrew:** ניבן שחור-סנפיר
- **Portuguese:** Moréia-marrom-claro
- **Czech:** muréna mozambická
- **Japanese:** ノコギリウツボ, Nokogiriutsubo
- **Chinese:** 平氏裸胸鱔, 平達裸胸鯙, 薯鰻

## Range

Indian Ocean, Mozambique, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/moray-eel/dwarf-brown-moray)*
*Updated: August 17, 2026*