Blackspot Moray

About this species

Gymnothorax melatremus, the blackspot moray, dirty yellow moray or dwarf moray, is a moray eel from the Indo-Pacific East Africa to the Marquesas and Mangaréva, north to the Hawaiian Islands, south to the Australs islands. It rarely makes its way into the aquarium trade.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Gymnothorax melatremus”, 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: 27 records
February: 22 records
March: 17 records
April: 53 records
May: 77 records
June: 60 records
July: 41 records
August: 46 records
September: 68 records
October: 80 records
November: 64 records
December: 24 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 6–30 m · Deepest record: 80 m

0–10 m: 30 records
10–20 m: 82 records
20–30 m: 54 records
30–40 m: 17 records
40–50 m: 3 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 1 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 15–30 °C

14–16 °C: 1 records
16–18 °C: 0 records
18–20 °C: 0 records
20–22 °C: 0 records
22–24 °C: 17 records
24–26 °C: 72 records
26–28 °C: 61 records
28–30 °C: 113 records

Photos

(c) cello caruso-turiello, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) norcalmc, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) jeyre, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ken-ichi Ueda, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Robin White, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Blackspot Moray, Dirty Yellow Moray, Dwarf Moray, Golden Moray

Names in 5 more languages

Spanish: Morena enana
Filipino: Payangitan
French: Murène jaunâtre
Japanese: Himeutsubo, ヒメウツボ
Simplified Chinese: 薯鰻, 虎鰻, 錢鰻, 黃體裸胸鱔

Other scientific names: Lycodontis melatremus

Similar species

Lipspot moray
Gymnothorax chilospilus
Fimbriated moray
Gymnothorax fimbriatus
Barred-fin Moray
Gymnothorax zonipectis
Vagrant moray
Gymnothorax buroensis
Abbott's Moray
Gymnothorax eurostus
Laced moray
Gymnothorax favagineus

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).
497 open-data records from 1951 to 2019.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.