Gymnothorax vicinus
Purplemouth Moray
Collection Details
Specimens
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Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Anguilliformes (True Eels)
Muraenidae (Morays)
Gymnothorax
Gymnothorax vicinus (Purplemouth 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
Moderately elongate and laterally compressed posteriorly; snout elongate, acute, and narrows sharply from bulbous nape; jaws elongate; anterior nostril tubular, posterior nostril slightly raised and located above and slightly behind anterior margin of eye; eye large and centered near midpoint of jaws; teeth smooth; upper jaw with outer series of 15 to 21 teeth and inner series of 1 to 3 teeth; lower jaw with 11 to 13 teeth, with anterior 4 enlarged and flanked by 2 to 8 tiny teeth; intermaxillary teeth consist of lateral series of 5 or 6 teeth flanked by 3 to 9 tiny teeth and 3 median fangs; vomerine teeth uniserial, number 6 to 14, and are separated from intermaxillary teeth; gill openings slitlike and located at about midbody depth; head pores number four infraorbital, three supraorbital, six mandibular, and two branchial; snout 17% to 22%, eye 8.1% to 12%, and upper jaw 33% to 48% of head length; head length 13% to 16%, predorsal length 10% to 13%, preanal length 41% to 47%, depth at gill openings 4.6% to 8%, and depth at anus 5.2% to 7.1% of TL; total vertebrae number 128 to 140, predorsal vertebrae number 3 to 6, and preanal vertebrae number 48 to 53
Mottled pattern of overlapping dark spots to almost uniform brown with faint freckles of darker colors; posterior one-third of dorsal fin and entire anal fin have pale edges; dark horizontal slash is located at inner corner of mouth, and interior of mouth is pigmented
Distribution
Western Atlantic off Bermuda, Florida, and the northern Gulf of Mexico
Northern Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Tropical Atlantic Ocean between 9 and 73 m near reefs and rocky areas
Reefs and rocky areas
Biology
Maximum known size is 1,200 mm TL
Females mature between 380 and 785 mm TL
A benthic and solitary species (Ref. 26340) inhabiting rocky shores and reefs where water is clear. Most active at night (Ref. 9710). Marketed fresh (Ref. 5217). May cause serious wounds (Ref. 5217). Traded as an aquarium fish at Ceará, Brazil (Ref. 49392).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2011-08-18. Resilience: Very 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; aquarium: commercial.
References
Hoese and Moore 1977
Castro-Aguirre and Marquez-Espinoza 1981
C. R. Robins et al. 1986
E. Bohlke et al. 1989
Smith 1989m
Boschung 1992
Randall, J.E. (1967) Food habits of reef fishes of the West Indies. Stud. Trop. Oceanogr. Miami 5:665-847.
Edwards, A. (1990) Fish and fisheries of Saint Helena Island. Centre for Tropical Coastal Management Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
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.
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.
Oliveira, M.T., M.N. Santos, R. Coelho, V. Monteiro, A. Martins and P.G. Lino (2015) Weight-length and length-length relationships for reef fish species from the Cape Verde archipelago (tropical north-eastern Atlantic). J. Appl. Ichthyol. 31(1):236-241. DOI: 10.1111/jai.12497
Comments On Gymnothorax vicinus