Snakes, eels and eel-like fishes on Singapore shores: how to tell them apart

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Phylum Chordata > Subphylum Vertebrata > fishes | snakes

Snake, eel or eel-like fish?
How to tell them apart?
updated Aug 08

Long and squirmy These kinds of animals are often mistaken for one another.


Yellow-lipped sea snake Laticauda colubrina	Moray eels Family Muraenidae	Carpet eel-blenny Congrogadus subducens Family Pseudochromidae
The sea snake is a reptile.	The moray eel is a fish.	The carpet eel-blenny is a fish.

No gills or gill openings.	Gill openings reduced to pores.	Has large gill covers.
No tube on the nostrils.	Pair of tubular nostrils at the snout.	No tube on the nostrils.
No fins.	No pelvic and pectoral fins.	Has pectoral fins
Has large scales.	No scales.	Has small scales.

The tail is flattened and paddle-like.	Dorsal and anal fins are continuous with the tail fin.	Dorsal and anal fins are continuous with the tail fin.

More comparisons

The worm-eel is a fish	Burrowing snake-eels have pectoral fins and a blunt snout without nostril tubes.	The pipefish is a fish.
Striped eeltail catfishes also have eel-like tails.	The Black eeltail catfish also has an eel-like tail.	The dog-faced water snake is commonly seen in the water and mud of our mangroves.
Ribbon worms can be very long. They usually stay on the ground and don't swim about very fast.	Long black sea cucumbers don't move very fast.	A sea whip is a colony of tiny animals that are usually anchored to the bottom, although the entire whip-like colony may sway in the currents.

how to tell apart

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