---
title: Reticulate Moray (Gymnothorax reticularis)
scientific_name: Gymnothorax reticularis
common_name: Reticulate Moray
taxon: Moray eel
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-25T18:45:20.962Z
updated: 2026-08-14T23:49:22.863Z
tags: Reticulate Moray, Gymnothorax reticularis, Moray eel, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/moray-eel/reticulate-moray
---

# Reticulate Moray (*Gymnothorax reticularis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Moray eel (*Muraenidae*)
- **Size:** up to 60 cm
- **Depth:** 1-40 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Silty bottom and rubble near reef, often in turbid water
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- pale body with a dark brown net pattern of irregular meshes
- pattern coarser and more open than in the honeycomb moray
- smaller and slimmer than most reef morays
- length up to 60 cm

A slim netted moray of silty bottom and turbid water, sixty centimeters (24 in), and one that most divers here have never seen because it lives where nobody dives.

It prefers soft bottom near reef rather than the reef itself, and it is regularly taken by trawlers - which is how most records of it exist at all. The pattern is a coarse dark net on pale ground, more open than the fine honeycomb of its larger relative, and the two are easy to separate once seen side by side.

Morays have no pectoral fins and no scales. The skin is bare and coated in thick mucus, and the whole animal is built as a muscle that can push into a hole and hold there against anything trying to pull it out.

It hunts small fish and crustaceans at night, and spends the day out of sight. The danger flag is the family's - teeth and a bite that does not let go - not aggression.

## Also known as

- **English:** Dusky-banded Moray, Moray Eel, Net Moray
- **Hebrew:** ניבן רשתני
- **Spanish:** Morena Reticulada
- **Portuguese:** Moréia-reticulada
- **Czech:** muréna znamenaná
- **Chinese:** 疏條紋裸胸鯙, 網紋裸胸鱔, 薯鰻

## Scientific synonyms

- *Muraena reticularis* (Bloch, 1795)

## Range

Republic of Mauritius

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/moray-eel/reticulate-moray)*
*Updated: August 14, 2026*