A pale cream eel to 1 m (3 ft), marked with two or three rows of large round black spots and moving over open sand with the head lifted clear of the bottom. It has no fins to speak of, no visible gill covers and a stiff pointed tail, and at a glance in blue water it does not read as a fish at all.
That is arguably the point. Banded and spotted sea snakes patrol the same sand flats and are venomous enough that reef predators avoid them, and a spotted snake eel swimming in the open, exposed and unhurried in daylight, gets a benefit from the resemblance that a normal eel hiding in a hole does not need. It is not settled science, but the behavior of an animal this defenseless crossing open ground in the middle of the day is otherwise hard to explain.
The tail is a tool. The tip is hardened and pointed, and the eel digs into sand backwards, driving the tail down with a corkscrew motion and sinking out of sight in seconds while still facing forward. Nearly every snake eel in the family does it the same way, and it is why a diver who sees one usually sees only the head sticking out of the seabed.
It hunts at night, pushing that head into the sediment after crabs and small fish, and follows scent rather than sight. Harmless, no venom, no bite worth the name - the resemblance is entirely borrowed.
The genus. Myrichthys Girard 1859 - ichthýs (fish). ETYFish
- pale cream body with two or three rows of large round black spots
- no visible fins, head held clear of the bottom while swimming
- stiff pointed tail used to dig in backwards
- out over open sand in daylight
Why it's threatened
Although this species is occasionally sold in the aquarium trade, it is not thought to adversely affect the population(s). There are no known major threats.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
