17/C – Moray eel - Muraena helena

Its elongated, cylindrical, strong, serpentiform, body is flat at the back. It has a very wide mouth aperture and jaws equipped with long, sharp teeth that can cause a very painful bite, but not poisonous as many believe. Deprived of ventral fins as all anguilliforms, it moves quickly in the water thanks to a swimming technique that resembles the movement of snakes. Its skin, without scales, is covered in mucus. It is tabby colored, blackish with whitish-yellow spots. Its living environment ranges from the surface to 100 meters deep; it has a preference for the cavities in rocky environments, but it is also common to find in wreckages and in fields. It hunts fish and cephalopods at night. It reaches a size of around 150 centimeters.