5/17/2023 0 Comments Wolf eel mouth![]() ![]() the Moray will leave its den and join the grouper on the hunt. To initiate the team-up, grouper fish will find a giant Moray and shake its head. Giant Moray eels, on the other hand, live in coral, and their prey heads to open water to escape them. Groupers are open water hunters and their prey hides from them in coral. The giant Moray Eel has been observed teaming up with grouper and other fish on hunts. Cleverly, Morays have developed openings on either side of their large mouth, which allows for water to move through their mouths and prevent wave generation.īut Morays don’t only ambush, sometimes they chase. But these lunges generate waves which can displace their prey, moving them out of their range. Morays are primarily ambushed hunters, lunging at prey as they pass by. This strategy is due to the fact that they’re nocturnal and to see in the dark while underwater requires a certain visual awareness that Morays lack. They rely primarily on chemoreception to catch prey. Morays have very poor eyesight but an excellent sense of smell. They do not have swim bladders and are therefore not the best creatures for maintaining buoyancy. ![]() With their large sharp teeth, this makes them look aggressive when in fact they’re not. They do this to control a flow of oxygen-rich water to pass their gills, which are located next to their mouths. One of the Morays typical behaviours that don’t help their creepy reputation is their constant opening and closing of their mouths. However, this may not always be a friendly encounter. They usually prefer to stay alone, but it’s not uncommon to see two or more Moray Eels together. ( Learn about the two battling moose found frozen in ice.Moray Eels are surprisingly shy creatures that spend most of the daytime in crevices of rocks, coral or other parts of the reef. Octopus is a favorite food of morays, along with other fish and invertebrates. In fact, it is that wily nature-as well as the remarkable flexibility and slipperyness of the animal-that might have led the eel to try to subdue its prey by coiling its body around the octopus.Įels don't kill prey by strangling it to death, the way some snakes do, but wrapping their body around it can help them hold on. Unlike some insects and lizards, an octopus can't release an appendage on command, but if one does happen to break off in a struggle the animals can often regrow the arm. "The octopus was in a life-and-death struggle, and it sacrifieed an arm or two for its life," Burgess adds. ![]() When they are threatened, they can release it into the water, confusing predators and concealing their escape. Octopuses, like squid, have a gland that produces dark ink. "It left a cloud of black ink as its calling card," says Burgess. With a quick blast of its water propulsion system, the octopus shoots out of sight. One or more of the invertebrate's tentacles break off in the eel's mouth, allowing the octopus to wriggle free. "Just like how you don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t get too close to a moray eel," says Burgess.Ī snorkeler in Hawaii found that out first hand during a recent swim in Oahu's popular Hanauma Bay, which was caught on video (see above).Īt first, a large moray can be seen wrestling with a smaller octopus. Never piss off a moray eel, warns George Burgess, a marine biologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History. ![]()
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