Tiger Snake Eel, Myrichthys tigrinus

Tiger Snake Eel, Myrichthys tigrinus. Fish provided by the by the commercial fishermen of the greater Los Cabos Area, Baja California Sur, March 2010. Length: 71 cm (2 feet 4 inches).

Tiger Snake Eel, Myrichthys tigrinus. Underwater photograph taken in coastal waters of Bahia Tenacaitita, Jalisco, February 2015. Photograph and identification courtesy of Jeff Cross, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Tiger Snake Eel, Myrichthys tigrinus. Underwater photographs taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2018. Photographs courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo.

Tiger Snake Eel, Myrichthys tigrinus. Underwater photographs taken in coastal waters off Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, September 2021 and July 2023. Photographs courtesy of Kevin Erwin, Seattle, Washington.

The Tiger Snake Eel, Myrichthys tigrinus, is a member of the Snake Eel or Ophichthidae Family, that is also known as the Spotted Snake Eel and in Mexico as tieso tigre. Globally, there are ten species in the genus Myrichthys, of which four are found in Mexican waters, two in the Atlantic and two in the Pacific Ocean.

The Tiger Snake Eels has an elongated cylindrical body that taper toward the tail. They have a cream coloration with large black oval spots in a giraffe pattern. They have a spotted throat and chin, a key to identification. Their dorsal fin has a pale margin. Their head is conical with a short overhanging snout, mid-sized eyes, and a short mouth. Their teeth are small and granular with two irregular rows on the jaws and one on the roof of the mouth. They have short broad-based pectoral fins. Their tail, which has a blunt, hard, and finless tip, is 58 to 63% of body length. They do not have scales.

The Tiger Snake Eel is a demersal species that is found primarily within burrows in sandy and muddy bottoms at depths up to 61 m (200 feet). They reach a maximum of 74 cm (2 feet 5 inches) in length. The Tiger Snake Eel  is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.

The Tiger Snake Eel is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean with the exception that they are absent from Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, northward along the central and northwest coasts of Baja.

The Tiger Snake Eel can be confused with the Mustachioed Snake Eel, Herpetoichthys fossatus (densely spotted head; short tail) and the Pacific Snake Eel, Ophichthus triserialis (lacks spotting on throat and chin).

From a conservation perspective the Tiger Snake Eel is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are fairly rare and thus of limited interest to most.