Common Name:

Snowflake Moray

 

Overview:

The Snowflake moray eel is one of the most commonly available morays and one of the most suitable species to keep in aquariums.

 

Distribution:

The Snowflake moray eel is found in the entire tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean. They can be encountered from the red sea and the east coast of Africa to the tropical waters of the western coast of the Americas.

 

Coloration:

The Snowflake moray eel has a white body with small spots that are anywhere between yellow to black. Look at the picture to better see how what it looks like.

 

Care:

The Snowflake moray eel grows large and adult specimens require large aquariums. A small juvenile specimen can be kept in a 40 gallon / 150 L aquarium, but juvenile specimens do grow fast and will quickly grow out such a small tank. A 75 gallon / 300 L tank is more suitable as it can house the moray its entire life.

The Snowflake moray eel should be kept in aquariums with at least one suitably sized cave. It is better to provide it with several caves and decorate in such a way that it is possible for it to move from on side of your aquarium to the other without being exposed. This will make the Snowflake moray eel feel more at home in your aquarium and make it more active and visible. It will spend more time out in the open if it feels safe in your aquarium.

Keep the water quality high and the water values stable.

The Snowflake moray eel is like all morays an escape artist and it is very important to keep the entire aquarium well covered. This applies even if your aquarium isn't filled with water all they way up as they are good jumpers and can raise a large portion of the body straight out of the water if they want to

Feeding:

The Snowflake moray eel is an active nocturnal predator. Its preferred prey is different types of crustaceans but it will occasionally eat fish as well. It will accept most meaty food types in the aquarium and should be fed a variety of different meaty foods such as fish chunks, shrimps, clam meat, mussels, crab meat and other sea foods. The Snowflake moray eel appreciates being fed live food every now and then. Feed your snowflake moray eel when it is hungry, which usually means 2-3 times a week. Don't try to get them to eat more often as that can hurt the health of your morays. They can sometimes go a couple of weeks without eating and this is nothing to worry about if your moray seems otherwise healthy. They are often less active during periods when they don’t eat so this is not a sign of failing health.

You can train your Snowflake moray eel to eat out of your hand. This is however not recommended as they have poor eye sight and will bite you sooner or later. They have sharp teeth and bites from small morays can be painful while bites from adult specimens can cause large bleeding wounds. Hand feeding them can also make them associate your hand with food which can cause them to attack your hand when you work in the aquarium

Breeding:

Only large adult specimens breed. In the wild, the eggs are scattered in the pelagic and will spend some time floating around in the current before the fry make their way back to the bottom. We have no information on sexing or breeding the snowflake moray eel in aquariums.