Ophichthidae

Napoleon snake eel

Ophichthus bonaparti

Seventy Five Centimeters Eel of Indo Pacific

• Tropical
• Transcontinental
• Marine fish
• Indian Ocean
• Pacific Ocean
• Africa
• East Asia
• Oceania
• Southeast Asia
• Anguilliform
• Large
• Tropical fish

The Napoleon snake eel (Ophichthus bonaparti, also known as the Napoleon eel, the Purplebanded snake eel, or the Saddled snake-eel) is an eel in the family Ophichthidae (worm/snake eels). It was described by Johann Jakob Kaup in 1856, originally under the genus Poecilocephalus. It is a marine, tropical eel which is known from the Indo-Pacific, including Durban, South Africa, Mauritius, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, and the Penghu Islands.