Moray Eel???

[jeremygo]

Hi,

I hope someone can help me because, I'll been trawling the internet all night trying to find an answer for this:

Earlier Today, I was diving of the coast of batangas, philippines, when i saw an unsual animal at around 50-60ft, poking its head and part of its body out of the sandy slope.

At first glance, i thought that it was a snowflake moray, as it looked very similar, but that was unsual about it was the way it looked and moved. It had anound 12 inches of its body out of its hole and it was straight as a rod, didn't bend, wave, or anything like that. And when i apporached it began to pull itself in, but still straight, didn't bend its body or wave at all to move in, it just retracted itself in, still straight as a rod.

My question is, is this a moray? can they do that? if not, what is it?

Thanks

 

[donnyb]

Can you describe it further? Color, Did it have markings, did you see a mouth or eyes. How big around was it? Often its easier to start by ruling out possible critters. You could start looking at guidebooks and depending on the size, check out the garden eels or the snake eels, or possibly a ribbon eel.

 

[jeremygo]

HI Donny,

Thanks for your reply, after asking some other people and looking around the internet, i have decided i probably saw a snake eel, possibly one that's called a crocodile snake eel? is that correct?

It wasn't very large, probably around 2 feet long and 5 to7 inches around. the coloring was very drab, looked liked the surronding sand actually, grey with back/white spots.

Thanks for your help.

 

[isurus]

HI Donny,

Thanks for your reply, after asking some other people and looking around the internet, i have decided i probably saw a snake eel, possibly one that's called a crocodile snake eel? is that correct?

It wasn't very large, probably around 2 feet long and 5 to7 inches around. the coloring was very drab, looked liked the surronding sand actually, grey with back/white spots.

Thanks for your help.

Here's a crocodile eel...

and this is another eel we saw in the sand a lot in the Philippines ( a unicolor snake moray)

 

[jeremygo]

Hi,

Thanks for all you help.

I am now 99.9% sure, what i saw was most likely some kind of snake eel.

Of course, I'd have to go down there again and look for it to be sure.

Oh well, another excuse to go diving. (Like i need one.)

Thanks again for all your help.