Black Moray Eel Muraena augusti

The Black Moray Eel is native to reefs and coasts mainly of Macaronesia (Madeira, Savage Islands, Canaries, Azores, Cape Verde) but can also be found along the neighbouring West African coastline and the western European and Mediterranean coast.

Its colour is usually a dark chocolate brown or dark violet blue or grey rather than black, but with a black head. It has contrasting white eyes and four nostrils (2 on the snout and 2 between its eyes). It grows to over a metre and up to 1.2 metres long. Diet is invertebrates and fish. It is a nocturnal predator, usually hiding in rocks in the day.

Another moray eel in a different genus and from the Far East is called the Black Body Moray Eel, Gymnothorax melanosomatus. The two images above centre and right show a Black Moray with a Fangtooth Moray - it is not unusual to see morays of different species associating together during the day.