Echidna polyzona
Cream-and-black banded eel found reef-hunting in the Philippines and Sulawesi in 24-29C water, year-round, mostly on night dives.
Slim, snake-like body banded in dark brown-to-black rings on a cream or pale grey background, reaching around 50 cm which makes it one of the smaller morays you'll find on a reef. The bands run vertically like a series of collars rather than blotches, and the head is narrow with no distinct spots between bands. Often seen with just the banded head and a loop of body poking from a crevice, rest hidden in the reef.
Usually spotted with just the head and a coil of banded body showing from a crack in the reef, hunting small fish and crustaceans by scent as much as sight. Divers most often log it as an uncommon sighting, so it takes a slow look into reef holes and rubble rather than open swimming to find one. Night dives tend to show more active individuals out foraging, though daytime sightings of a resting head-out pose are the norm.
Like other morays it pumps water over its gills by opening and closing its mouth constantly, a breathing motion that gets mistaken for aggression when it's just respiring.
No clear seasonal pattern shows up in the sightings, and its comfort range of roughly 24 to 29C spans tropical reef conditions all year, so it's a year-round find rather than a seasonal target.
Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.
Most commonly logged across the Philippines, especially Luzon, Palawan, Mindanao and the Visayas, and in Indonesia's Sulawesi region. Also a steady find in Queensland (Australia), Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands in Japan, and Sabah in Malaysia, with further records from Micronesia and French Polynesia.
Mapping where Barred Moray is logged…
Best odds are in the Philippines (Luzon, Palawan, Mindanao, Visayas) and Sulawesi in Indonesia. It also turns up reliably in Queensland, Okinawa, and Sabah.
There's no strong season in the sighting data. It lives on reefs in 24-29C water year-round, so any time you're diving those regions is fair game.
Look for a slender eel around 50 cm long with dark brown vertical bands crossing a pale cream body, usually with just the head and a loop of body showing from a reef crevice.
They reach around 50 cm, making them noticeably smaller and slimmer than reef giants like the giant moray.
No, they're not considered dangerous to divers. Like all morays they can bite if provoked or hand-fed, so admire from a distance and don't reach into crevices.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Garden Eel
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