Fangtooth Moray Eel

Fangtooth Moray Facts

• The Fangtooth Moray Eel is named for its mouthful of semi-transparent fang-like teeth.
• This creature is sometimes known as the Tiger Moray Eel because of its yellow and black coloration.
• The Fangtooth Moray has frequently been photographed with a White Striped Cleaner Shrimp hard at work in its mouth. The two species appear to have a working relationship where the shrimp cleans the eel’s mouth of food scraps and parasites.

Fangtooth Moray Overview

The fearsome-looking Fangtooth Moray is really not much of a threat to humans. There are certainly cases of humans receiving a nasty bite from these eels, but those were usually incidents when it was provoked. Like most eels, the Fangtooth Moray is generally peaceful when humans are around so long as it is not startled or made to feel threatened.

The Fangtooth Moray prefers to spend most of its time hiding among rocks and waiting for some tasty small fish or crustaceans to swim by. Considered to be fairly common in the Atlantic Ocean, one Fangtooth Moray was captured in the south-eastern Aegean Sea, leading researchers to wonder if these eels are expanding their territory.

This eel’s namesake feature, the teeth, is arranged in two rows within the mouth. The outer row contains the larger teeth, which can grow about an inch long. These teeth are spaced between several slightly smaller teeth. The inner row of teeth is very sharp, which is necessary for a diet of crustaceans.