Australian Moray

Gymnothorax cribroris

Fish
IUCN: Least concern

Usual depth27–64 m
Water temperature20–29 °C
Best monthsAugust, September, and October
How commonOccasional

Photo credit: (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

About this species

The sieve-patterned moray eel is a species of moray eel found in coral reefs of the western Pacific Ocean and northern Australia. It was first named by Whitley in 1932 and is also commonly known as the sieve moray, brown-flecked reef eel, brown-flecked moray or the Australian moray.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Sieve-patterned 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: 32 records
February: 29 records
March: 29 records
April: 31 records
May: 28 records
June: 29 records
July: 8 records
August: 63 records
September: 90 records
October: 85 records
November: 27 records
December: 8 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 27–64 m · Deepest record: 94.5 m

0–10 m: 2 records
10–20 m: 0 records
20–30 m: 35 records
30–40 m: 64 records
40–50 m: 67 records
50–60 m: 53 records
60–70 m: 25 records
70–80 m: 7 records
80–90 m: 5 records
90–100 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 20–29 °C

20–22 °C: 4 records
22–24 °C: 22 records
24–26 °C: 25 records
26–28 °C: 276 records
28–30 °C: 1 records

Photos

Names and classification

English: Australian Moray, Brown-flecked moray, Brown-flecked Reef Eel, Sieve Moray, Sieve-patterned eel, Sieve-patterned Moray, Sieve-patterned Moray-eel

Names in 2 more languages

Spanish: Morena tamizada
Simplified Chinese: 克里裸胸鱔

Similar species

Vagrant moray
Gymnothorax buroensis
Lipspot moray
Gymnothorax chilospilus
Abbott's Moray
Gymnothorax eurostus
Laced moray
Gymnothorax favagineus
Fimbriated moray
Gymnothorax fimbriatus
Yellow-edged moray
Gymnothorax flavimarginatus

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).
366 open-data records from 1956 to 2005.
Species data updated November 3, 2026.

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