Gymnothorax pikei is a rare moray eel

Moray eel

Moray eels are cosmopolitan eels of the family Muraenidae. The approximately 200 species in 15 genera are almost exclusively marine, but several species are regularly seen in brackish water and a few, for example the freshwater moray can sometimes be found in freshwater...

 found in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

s. It was first named by Bliss in 1883, and is commonly known as the Pike's moray. The species is represented by only two specimens - the type specimen discovered in 1883, and a second found in 1962. It is very similar to two other species; Gymnothorax berndti

Gymnothorax berndti

Gymnothorax berndti is a deep-water moray eel found in coral reefs in the Pacific and western Indian oceans at depths of up to 300 meters. It was first named by Snyder in 1904, and is commonly known as the Y-patterned moray, Berndt's moray eel, or the Berndt's moray....

 and Gymnothorax ypsilon

Gymnothorax ypsilon

Gymnothorax ypsilon is a deep-water moray eel found in the Pacific ocean at depths of up to 185 meters. It was first named by Hatooka and Randall in 1992, and is commonly known as the Y-bar moray....

 and is distinguished from the latter by fewer black lines and the presence of horizontal black lines towards the tail, and differs from both species in the absence of a white margin along the anal fin.