Stripesnout False Moray, Chlopsis apterus
Stripesnout False Moray, Chlopsis apterus. Fish caught in coastal waters off off Point Palmilla, Baja California Sur, January 2016. Length: 12.1 cm (4.8 inches). Tail: 68%.
The Stripesnout False Moray, Chlopsis apterus, is a member of the False Moray or Chlopsidae Family, and is known in Mexico as morena falsa hocico rayado. There are twenty-four global members of the Chlopsidae family that have been placed in nine genera. There are nine global members of the genus Chlopsis, of which four are found in Mexican waters, two in the Atlantic and two in the Pacific Ocean.
The Stripesnout False Moray has an elongated slightly compressed body that tapers gradually to a rounded tail. They are brown dorsally and abruptly change to white ventrally. They have a prominent white stripe along their snout before the eyes and a narrow brown band along their lower jaw. Their head has a bluntly pointed snout, large eyes, front tubular nostrils pointing downwards, and rear nostrils under the eyes that open on the top lip. They have a moderately large mouth that extends behind the eyes, 3 rows of small pointed teeth on each jaw, and 2 series of teeth on the roof of their mouth. Their gill opening is a small oval. Their anal and dorsal fins are well-developed and continuous with the caudal fin. Their dorsal fin originates behind the gill cover and they have no pectoral fins. Their tail is approximately 55% of body length. Their lateral line is incomplete.
The Stripesnouth False Moray is a demersal species that inhabitants sandy bottoms, in which they burrow, and are found in deep crevices in rocky reefs at depths between 79 m (260 feet) and 139 m (425 feet). They reach a maximum of 25.0 cm (9.8 inches) in length. They are nocturnal ambush predators with poor eyesight that utilize a keen sense of smell to seek out prey, consuming small fish and invertebrates including crabs, octopus, and shrimp. Reproduction is viviparous with eggs and sperm broadcasted into the water and generating pelagic eggs and larvae that drift in oceanic currents. The Stripesnout False Moray is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Stripesnout False Moray is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean but has a limited distribution being found only from Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur, southward along the central and southeast coasts of Baja and from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, south to Guatemala along the west coast of the mainland. I have a fish that was caught 40 miles north of Cabo San Lucas in the Pacific, that documents the presence of the fish along the southwest coast of Baja.
The Stripesnout False Moray can be confused with the Mexican False Moray, Chlopsis kazuko (dorsal fin originating before gill cover).
From a conservation perspective the Stripesnout False Morays has not been formally evaluated and is currently considered to be Data Deficient. They are seldom seen by humans and normally only encountered via sand dredges, thus of limited interest to most.