A small mottled moray of coral rubble, forty centimeters (16 in), rarely seen and almost never seen whole.
The name is the story. John E. Randall described more marine fish species than anyone in history - over eight hundred - and a large share of the reef fish in this catalogue carry names he gave them or were sorted out of confusion by his work. This eel was described in 1990 and named for him by colleagues; a fish list for the 🌊 Red Sea without his surname in the authorities would be a very short list.
Biologically it is a typical small moray: nocturnal, hunting small fish and crustaceans among rubble, spending the day wedged into a hole with its head at the entrance.
Rarely photographed, and easily mistaken for a juvenile of something larger. The way to tell is proportion - a small moray with an adult's blunt head rather than a juvenile's slim one.
The genus. Gymnothorax Bloch 1795 - gymnós (bare or naked) + thṓrax (breast or chest). ETYFish
The species. Gymnothorax randalli Smith & Böhlke 1997 - Honours American ichthyologist John E. Randall. ETYFish
- small moray, mottled brown with pale flecks
- short snout and a small eye
- usually only the head visible in a rubble hole
- length up to 41 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no known threats to Gymnothorax randalli.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
