Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Gymnothorax porphyreus
Morena de aleta baja, Lowfin Moray
Is a yellowish to grey-brown moray eel with a relatively short snout, which grows to 130 cm TL. It typically inhabits shallow rocky reefs at depths of up to 13 m.
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Teleostei
Order
Anguilliformes
Suborder
Muraenoidei
Family
Muraenidae
Genus
Gymnothorax
Species
porphyreus
Taxon category: Accepted
Syn.: Gymnothorax chilensis (Günther, 1872); Gymnothorax griffin Whitley & Phillipps, 1939; Gymnothorax obscurirostris Rendahl, 1921; Gymnothorax porphyria (Guichenot, 1848); Gymnothorax wiener Sauvage, 1883; Muraena chilensis Günther, 1872; Muraena porphyria (Guichenot, 1848); Muraenophys porphyreus Guichenot, 1848; Murenophis porphyreus Guichenot, 1848 (Ahyong, S et al., 2025).
Origin: Native
Distribution: Its distribution ranges from New Caledonia to the Pacific coast of South America, with previous records only reaching as far north as southern Ecuador. In the Galápagos Islands, it has been recorded at Fernandina.
- Ahyong, S Et. al. (2025) World Register of Marine Species. Available from https://www.marinespecies.org at VLIZ. doi:10.14284/170
- Bensted-Smith W Terán F, Banks S, Keith I (2025) New photographic records of eight marine fishes from the Galápagos Islands, including three first records for the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Check List 21 (2): 485–505. https://doi.org/10.15560/21.2.485
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This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Gymnothorax porphyreus", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=25586. Accessed 6 November 2026.