Marshall Islands Eels

Eels are common on Kwajalein reefs, but since they typically live deep within reef cracks and crevices or buried in sand, they are often overlooked. Some are very difficult to impossible to photograph since they never or almost never come out into the open. Some species are known in the Marshalls only from specimens collected at "kill stations" where an ichthyocide such as rotenone is used to drive cryptic fish from their lairs in order to be sampled. Eel species known from the Marshalls (and other Micronesian islands) are listed in a checklist in Myers (1999), supplemented by a listing of new Marshall Islands records published later (Randall et al (2005)). Some of our photos were not taken in the Marshalls; these are indicated in the descriptions of those species.

Muraenidae (Moray Eels)

Echidna nebulosa	Echidna polyzona	Gymnomuraena zebra
Gymnothorax breedeni	Gymnothorax enigmaticus	Gymnothorax enigmaticus
Gymnothorax fimbriatus	Gymnothorax flavimarginatus	Gymnothorax formosus
Gymnothorax gracilicauda	Gymnothorax javanicus	Gymnothorax melatremus
Gymnothorax meleagris	Gymnothorax meleagris variation	Gymnothorax pictus
Gymnothorax pindae	Gymnothorax rueppelliae	Gymnothorax thyrsoideus
Gymnothorax undulatus	Gymnothorax cf undulatus	Gymnothorax zonipectis
Gymnothorax sp. 2	Gymnothorax sp. 3	Pseudechidna brummeri
Rhinomuraena quaesita male	Rhinomuraena quaesita female	Rhinomuraena quaesita juvenile
Scuticaria tigrina	Uropterygius fasciolatus	Uropterygius marmoratus
Uropterygius xanthopterus

Ophichthidae (Snake Eels)

Brachysomophis crocodilinus	Brachysomophis henshawi	Callechelys marmorata
Myrichthys colubrinus	Ophichthus altipennis	Ophichthus bonaparti

Congridae (Conger and Garden Eels)

Ariosoma fasciatum	Ariosoma scheelei	Conger cinereus
Gorgasia galzini	Heteroconger hassi

Other eel species (from the three families covered here) that have been reported from the Marshall Islands and listed in the checklist in Myers (1999) include (links are to Fishbase):

Muraenidae
Anarchias allardicei Jordan & Starks, 1906
Anarchias cantonensis (Schultz, 1943)
Anarchias seychellensis Smith, 1962
Enchelycore bayeri (Schultz, 1953)
Enchelycore bikiniensis (Schultz, 1953)
Enchelynassa canina (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824)
Gymnothorax buroensis (Bleeker, 1857)
Gymnothorax fuscomaculatus (Schultz, 1953)
Gymnothorax margaritophorus (Bleeker, 1864)
Gymnothorax marshallensis (Schultz, 1953)
Gymnothorax monochrous (Bleeker, 1856)
Gymnothorax monostigma (Regan, 1909)
Uropterygius consolor Rüppell, 1837
Uropterygius fuscoguttatus Schultz, 1953
Uropterygius inornatus Gosline, 1958
Uropterygius kamar McCosker & Randall, 1977
Uropterygius macrocephalus (Bleeker, 1865)
Uropterygius supraforatus (Regan, 1909)
Uropterygius xenodontus McCosker & Smith, 1997
Ophichthidae
Apterichtus klazingai (Weber, 1913)
Callechelys catostomus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
Cirricaecula johnsoni Schultz, 1953
Echelus uropterus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1842)
Leiuranus semicinctus (Lay & Bennett, 1839)
Muraenichthys gymnota Bleeker, 1864
Muraenichthys laticaudata (Ogilby, 1879)
Muraenichthys macroptera Bleeker, 1857
Muraenichthys schultzei Bleeker, 1857
Muraenichthys sibogae Weber & deBeaufort, 1916
Myrichthys maculosus (Cuvier, 1816)
Phyllophichthus xenodontus Gosline, 1951
Schismorhynchus labialis (Seale, 1917)
Schultzidia johnstoniensis (Schultz & Woods, 1949)
Schultzidia retropinnis (Fowler, 1933)

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