---
title: Yellow-edged Moray (Gymnothorax flavimarginatus)
scientific_name: Gymnothorax flavimarginatus
common_name: Yellow-edged Moray
taxon: Moray eel
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-29T22:14:22.736Z
updated: 2026-08-12T12:37:27.715Z
tags: Yellow-edged Moray, Gymnothorax flavimarginatus, Moray eel, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/moray-eel/yellow-edged-moray
---

# Yellow-edged Moray (*Gymnothorax flavimarginatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Moray eel (*Muraenidae*)
- **Size:** up to 2.4 m
- **Depth:** 1-150 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Reef and rubble, in holes with the head out
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- mottled brown and yellow body with a fine dark speckling, like marbling
- yellow-green margin along the dorsal fin, clearest near the tail
- dark patch around the gill opening
- length up to 2.4 m

A heavy mottled moray to 2.4 m (8 ft), marbled brown and yellow with a fine dark speckle and a yellow-green edge to the fin along the back. The dark blotch around the gill opening is the field mark that separates it from the other big morays here.

It ties itself in knots, and it is not a metaphor. Morays have no limbs and cannot brace against anything, so to tear a piece off prey too large to swallow, the eel passes its own tail through a loop and pulls the head back through it, using the knot as a purchase point. The same maneuver gets it out of a grip and helps it back out of a hole.

Hunting is by smell in the dark, with tubular nostrils that sample water continuously, and the throat carries the family's second set of jaws that reach forward to drag prey down.

It is one of the species most often implicated in serious ciguatera poisoning, and large individuals in particular should never be eaten - the toxin concentrates up the reef food chain and this eel sits near the top of it.

## Also known as

- **English:** yellow-edged moray, Yellow Edged Moray, yellowmargin moray
- **Hebrew:** ניבן כתמים
- **French:** Murène à Bord Jaune, Murène à bordure jaune, Murène à points jaunes
- **Italian:** Murena bordata
- **German:** Gelbgefleckte Muräne, Gelbrandmuräne, Rußkopfmuräne
- **Spanish:** Morena De Borde Amarillo
- **Portuguese:** Moreia-de-margens-amarelas
- **Czech:** muréna žlutolemá
- **Japanese:** ゴマウツボ, Gomautsubo
- **Chinese:** 硓[石古]鰻, 糬鰻, 薯鰻
- **Russian:** Желтоплавниковый ликодонт (Желтоперая мурена)
- **DA:** Pantermuræne
- **TAH:** puhi 'iari
- **TGL:** Malibanos, Panangitan

## Scientific synonyms

- *Gymnothorax flavomarginatus* (Rüppell, 1830)
- *Gymnothorax mauritianus* (Kaup, 1856)
- *Gymnothorax viridipinnis* Bliss, 1883
- *Gymnothorax viridipinnnis* Bliss, 1883
- *Lycodontis flavimarginatus* (Rüppell, 1830)
- *Lycodontis flavomarginatus* (Rüppell, 1830)
- *Lycodontis lemayi* Smith, 1949
- *Muraena flavimarginata* Rüppell, 1830
- *Muraena mauritiana* Kaup, 1856
- *Muraena viridipinna* Seale, 1917
- *Muraena viridipinnna* Seale, 1917

## Range

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

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/moray-eel/yellow-edged-moray)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*