---
title: Undulated Moray (Gymnothorax undulatus)
scientific_name: Gymnothorax undulatus
common_name: Undulated Moray
taxon: Moray eel
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-29T22:31:57.002Z
updated: 2026-08-15T08:10:28.936Z
tags: Undulated Moray, Gymnothorax undulatus, Moray eel, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/moray-eel/undulated-moray
---

# Undulated Moray (*Gymnothorax undulatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Moray eel (*Muraenidae*)
- **Size:** up to 150 cm
- **Depth:** 0-110 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Coral reef and lagoon, in holes and under ledges
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- dark body with a fine pale yellow-green marbled network
- greenish-yellow head, often brighter than the body
- long narrow jaws that do not close fully over the teeth
- length up to 150 cm

A meter and a half (5 ft) of dark moray under a pale green net, with jaws that do not quite close over the teeth - and the one member of the family that has earned a reputation.

Most morays are shy animals that bite hands put into holes. This one is genuinely bad-tempered: it will leave its hole, it will advance on a diver who crowds it, and a disproportionate share of serious moray injuries on record involve this species. That is not a reason to fear the family - it is a reason to know which one you are looking at.

It hunts fish, octopus and crustaceans at night, and it is one of the morays known to hunt cooperatively with groupers, which sits oddly with the temper.

The teeth are long, thin and angled backwards, and the jaw cannot close over them because they are too long - the fish is built to hold rather than to cut. Large individuals in some regions carry ciguatoxins, which is the second flag.

## Also known as

- **English:** undulated moray, Undulated Moray Black Barred Garfish, Common Moray Eel
- **Arabic:** Musaf a'raqta, شيق متموج, موراي متموج
- **Hebrew:** ניבן מנומר
- **French:** Murène Léopard, Murène Ondulée, Murène ondulante
- **Italian:** Murena ondulata
- **German:** Marmormuräne
- **Spanish:** Morena Ondulada
- **Portuguese:** Moréia-undulada
- **Czech:** muréna leopardí
- **Japanese:** ナミウツボ, Namiutsubo, nami-utsubo
- **Chinese:** 波紋裸胸鯙, 波紋裸胸鱔, 波纹裸胸鳝
- **Russian:** Леопардовый гимноторакс (Леопардовая мурена)
- **AF:** Bontpaling
- **DA:** Marmoreret muræne
- **TAH:** puhi pete
- **TGL:** Malibanos

## Scientific synonyms

- *Gymnothorax undulates* (Lacepède, 1803)
- *Lycodontis undulata* (Lacepède, 1803)
- *Lycodontis undulatus* (Lacepède, 1803)
- *Muraena cancellata* Richardson, 1848
- *Muraenophis undulata* Lacepède, 1803

## Range

Comoros, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/moray-eel/undulated-moray)*
*Updated: August 15, 2026*