Stout Moray (Muraena robusta)?

[caietaro]

Has anyone ever heard of, or had any experience with the Stout Moray Muraena robusta? One of my LFS got one in and it was such an interesting eel, definitely not one I’ve seen before. There’s barely any info on them out there that I can find, except for the limited into on Fish Base. Looks like they typically get around 4-5 feet long, but with a species name of “Robusta” I imagine they get quite thick! This one was only about a foot long. The clownfish in the pictures is about 3” for reference. Apologies for the terrible photos; didn’t have a yellow filter for my phone on me so I tried my best to edit the photos to show its color and pattern a bit better.

It had such a unique pattern and interesting behavior. I’m really tempted to get it, but don’t want to end up with a monster eel that needs a 500g tank down the road!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Has anyone ever heard of,

I've heard of them, yes - never owned one or heard of someone owning one, though.

From what I've gathered (there's not much info out there that I can find on them), they have a huge head, and the body tapers down to more typical eel girth from there; the inside of their mouth is a bright orange; and they can reportedly grow to be 186 cm (63"), but I'd expect ~4-4.5' to be more typical in an aquarium.

I'd guess you'd want at least 200-250 gallons for it.

If you get one, please let me know how it goes, what it eats, etc.