Gymnothorax nigromarginatus
Blackedge Moray
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Anguilliformes (True Eels)
Muraenidae (Morays)
Gymnothorax
Gymnothorax nigromarginatus (Blackedge Moray)
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
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Characters
Elongate and laterally compressed posteriorly; snout short and blunt; jaws short; anterior nostril tubular, posterior nostril rimmed pore; eye large, centered at midpoint of jaws; teeth serrate; upper jaw with 8-12 teeth, lower jaw with 9-16 teeth; intermaxillary teeth consist of single tooth at tip of snout and 4 pairs of increasingly larger teeth, median teeth absent; vomerine teeth small, conical, uniserial; gill openings small, round to elliptical, located slightly below mid-depth of body; head pores: 3 infraorbital, 1 supraorbital, 6 mandibular, 2 branchial; snout 14-22%, eye 7.4-14%, upper jaw 34-54% of head length; head length 11-15% TL, predorsal length 10-13% TL, preanal length 39-45% TL, depth at gill openings 5.4-7.3% TL, depth at anus 4-6.5% TL; total vertebrae 137-147, predorsal vertebrae 5-8, preanal vertebrae 45-52
Medium brown with uniform-sized, well-separated, small, white to yellow spots; belly pale; eye surrounded by dark ring; dorsal fin with dark margin, often slightly undulated; anal fin with uniform dark edge; vertical fins with black margin
Distribution
Western North Atlantic from the northern Gulf of Mexico west of Mobile Bay
Habitat Associations
Depth range 10-91 m
Biology
Maximum known size 620 mm TL
Males mature between 404-555 mm TL, females mature between 328-620 mm TL
Abundant in seagrass beds and banks from 10-19 m depth. Rarely found in bays; absent from coral reefs.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2011-08-18. Resilience: Low (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
Phylogeny and Morphologically Similar Fishes
Distinguished from other species of the family by the combination of characters described
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: minor commercial; gamefish.
References
Ginsburg 1951
Hoese and Moore 1977
C. R. Robins et al. 1986
E. Bohlke et al. 1989
Boschung 1992
Thresher, R.E. (1984) Reproduction in reef fishes. T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Ltd., Neptune City, New Jersey. 399 p.
Robins, C.R. and G.C. Ray (1986) A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A. 354 p.
Humann, P. (1994) Reef fish identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas. New World Publications, Jacksonville, Florida. 426 p.
Smith, C.L. (1997) National Audubon Society field guide to tropical marine fishes of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. 720 p.
IGFA (2001) Database of IGFA angling records until 2001. IGFA, Fort Lauderdale, USA.
Comments On Gymnothorax nigromarginatus