Volume 4 Number 5
A Baby Goldentail Moray
There are many different kinds of Moray Eels. This baby Goldentail Moray looks just like an adult only smaller. This baby Goldentail Moray was only 4 inches long. An adult Goldentail Moray can be up to two feet long. This baby Moray was less than 1/2 inch wide, making it about the size of a finger.
Like other Morays, Goldentail Moray Eels have an amazing sense of smell. Notice this eel's nostrils which are short tubes that stick out from the end of its snout.
This Moray was living in a small hole in the reef surrounded by beautiful pink and red sponges. Nearby was a Golden Crinoid, an animal related to starfish that has 20 arms that look like long golden feathers. You can see one of these arms near the upper left corner of this picture.
Tessa Dowell saw this Goldentail Moray at night at a reef called Riding Rock Wall near the island of San Salvador in The Bahamas. This baby Moray was 40 feet underwater. Tessa took this picture with a Nikonos V camera with a SB105 strobe using a 28mm lens with a 2:1 macro extension tube.
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