Shorefishes of the Eastern Pacific online information system

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Species: Uropterygius polystictus, Many-spotted snake-moray, Peppered snake-moray

All Families:   All Genera:   All Species:

rear nostril: short tube over eye
grey to light orange, peppered with black
D & A on tail
1 pore above gill opening

Uropterygius polystictus Myers & Wade, 1941

Peppered snake-moray, Many-spotted snake-moray

Body round at front, becoming compressed behind; head & body slightly longer than tail; eye nearer snout than angle of jaws; teeth slender, conical, smooth; top and bottom jaw teeth in 2 series, inner series on each side about 8-9 large, depressible canines, with 2 small triangular patches of teeth at front of top jaw; 1 row of 5-6 teeth on roof of mouth;  both nostrils tubular, similar; rear nostril slightly in front of middle of eye, not associated with a pore; gill opening a small, ~ eye-size hole, at midside; 1 lateral line pore above gill opening; dorsal and anal fins present as skin covered crests at rear of body near tail; tail blunt, with small, skin covered tail fin.

Light grey to pale orange, peppered with dark spots, particularly on upper half of body and around head; both pairs of nostrils without pigment; pores on both jaws with pigmentless rings; membrane around tail with pale border.

Size: 72 cm.

Habitat: mixtures of sand, rock and coral substrata, including tidepools.

Depth: 1-35 m.

SW Gulf of California and the Galapagos.


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Salinity
  • Marine
  • Marine Only
Inshore/Offshore
  • Inshore
  • Inshore Only
Water Column Position
  • Bottom only
  • Bottom
Habitat
  • Reef (rock/coral/oyster)
  • Corals
  • Reef only
  • Rocks
  • Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
FishBase Habitat
  • Reef Associated
Feeding Group
  • No Data
  • Carnivore
Diet
  • Mobile benthic worms
  • Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
  • Octopus/squid/cuttlefish
  • Mobile benthic gastropods/bivalves
  • No Data
Egg Type
  • No data
  • Pelagic larva
  • Pelagic
Global Endemism
  • Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) endemic
  • East Pacific endemic
  • All species
Regional Endemism
  • Continent
  • Island (s)
  • Continent + Island (s)
  • TEP endemic
  • All species
Residency
  • Resident
Climate Zone
  • Equatorial (Costa Rica to Ecuador + Galapagos, Clipperton, Cocos, Malpelo)
  • Northern Subtropical (Cortez Province + Sinaloan Gap)
IUCN Red List
  • Data deficient
  • Listed
CITES
  • Not listed
Length Max
  • 72
Depth Range Min
  • 1
Depth Range Max
  • 35