Viper Moray, Enchelycore nigricans

Viper Moray, Enchelycore nigricans. Fish caught from coastal waters off Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, August 2013. Length: 66 cm (2 feet 2 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of James Lafontaine, Long Island, New York.

The Viper Moray, Enchelycore nigricans, is a member of the Moray and Snake Eel or Muraenidae Family, that is also known as the Black Edge Moray Eel and the Ocellated Moray and in Mexico as morena mulata, morena negra and morena vibora. Globally, there are twelve members in the genus Echelycore, of which three are found in Mexican waters, two in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific Ocean.

The Viper Moray has an elongated muscular body that is compressed at the rear with a large tapering tail that is 50% or slightly longer than the body length. Small individuals are a light brown color with irregular polygonal blotches on the sides on a pale background, dark between the eyes, a dark band across the name and a pale iris. Large individuals are a uniform dark brown color and have a dark iris. They have a large head with large eyes that are located mid-mouth, with the front nostril being a simple tube and the rear nostril being a large, elongated hole located well before the eyes. Their mouth has slender jaws and are narrow and arched that only meet at the tips making the fangs visible when the jaws are closed; they have conical teeth with the top jaw having an inner row being widely separated fangs and the outer row being close-set shorter teeth; the lower jaw has 2 to 5 teeth; and at the very front are 3 rows of 5 large fangs. The dorsal fin originates over the gill openings.

The Viper Moray is a common, benthic solitary species that is found on shallow reefs and along rocky shores at depths up to 60 m (200 feet). They reach a maximum of 1.00 m (3 feet 3 inches) in length) and 1.3 kg (2 lbs 14 oz) in weight. They are found as solitary individuals that take shelter during the day backing into crevices within rocky structure with only their head protruding. They are voracious nocturnal ambush predators with poor eyesight that utilize their keen sense of smell to seek out prey. They consume crabs, fish, octopus, and shrimp. Reproduction is oviparous. The Viper Moray 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 Viper Moray can be confused with the Chestnut Moray, Enchelycore carychroa (white spotting on the jaws; 6 to 13 teeth on the inner lower jaw).

The Viper Moray is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Atlantic Ocean including the Gulf of Mexico and the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Caribbean with the exception that they are absent north of Túxpam, Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico.

From a conservation perspective the Viper Moray is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are caught as a by-catch and retained by subsistence fishermen but not at a significant level.