Common Name: White-eyed Moray

Distribution: Common in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region, Christmas Island to French Polynesia, north to the Ryuku Islands, south to Tonga. In Australia recorded from the northern coast of Western Australia, from the Great Barrier Reef and northern New South Wales, and including Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands.

Ecological Notes: Frequents coastal and offshore reefs and boulder areas, sometimes shallow tidal pools. Rarely seen in the open prefering cracks and crevices. Depth range 0 to 40 m, usually shallower.

Additional Notes: Colour may vary slightly from grey to light brown, has darker head with white eye with small black pupil. Feeds on small fishes, crustaceans and octopi. Often in pairs, sometimes sharing crevices with other moray species, this smaller species grows to 65 cm, usually 40 cm.

References: Kuiter, R. H., Coastal Fishes of South-Eastern Australia. Published by Crawford House Press Pty. Ltd., 1993. p. 33.

R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p. 40.

Atlas of Living Australia website at https://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=Gymnothorax+thysoideus. Accessed 27/05/18.

FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. https://fishbase.ca/summary/Gymnothorax-thyrsoideus.html Accessed 27/05/18.