Dragon Eel

About this species

The leopard moray eel, also known as the dragon moray, tiger moray or puhi-kauila in Hawaiian, is a species of moray eel of the family Muraenidae.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Leopard moray eel”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 13 records
February: 10 records
March: 13 records
April: 5 records
May: 13 records
June: 26 records
July: 22 records
August: 40 records
September: 24 records
October: 47 records
November: 16 records
December: 12 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 1–20 m · Deepest record: 200 m

0–10 m: 19 records
10–20 m: 9 records
20–30 m: 2 records
30–40 m: 0 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 1 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 20–29 °C

20–22 °C: 6 records
22–24 °C: 5 records
24–26 °C: 11 records
26–28 °C: 20 records
28–30 °C: 10 records

Photos

(c) TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋), some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Emőke Dénes, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) 許慶棠Ray, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Robin White, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Robin White, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Dragon Eel, Dragon Moray, dragon moray eel, Dragon Moray Eel, Leopard moray eel, Hawaiian dragon eel, Leopard Moray, Leopard moray eel

Names in 6 more languages

German: Drachenmuräne
Spanish: Morena Dragón, Morena leopardo
French: Murène dragon, Murène-dragon
Japanese: Tora-utsubo, Torautsubo, トラウツボ
Korean: 알락곰치
Simplified Chinese: 薯鰻, 虎鰻, 豹紋勾吻鯙, 豹紋勾吻鱔, 錢鰻, 雞角仔鰻

Other scientific names: Gymnothorax pardalis, Muraena kailuae, Muraena kauila, Muraena lampra, Muraena pardalis

Similar species

Reticulated Hookjaw Moray
Enchelycore lichenosa
Mosaic Eel
Enchelycore ramosa
Bentjaw Moray
Enchelycore schismatorhynchus
Bayer's Moray
Enchelycore bayeri
Bikini Atoll Moray
Enchelycore bikiniensis
Snowflake moray
Echidna nebulosa

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
126 open-data records from 1846 to 2018.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.