Moray Eel attack?

[binobanana]

I was diving today! Solo! and i huge morey followed me half way! that thing got so close, that i poke her with my spear gun, like hey buddy dont get closer i will hurt you! you have no idea how fast they can be!!! :confused4:

i tried to swim away 3 times she found me again and again the point is the vis was about 15 feet and a fast moving moray just freaked me out when she got close before i even realized it! After the 4th run i got away!

 

[miketsp]

..snip..
ITS A MORAY!

A near miss. He's lucky he didn't scratch my port or I'd have.....

I was diving today! Solo! and i huge morey followed me half way! that thing got so close, that i poke her with my spear gun, like hey buddy dont get closer i will hurt you! you have no idea how fast they can be!!! :confused4:

i tried to swim away 3 times she found me again and again the point is the vis was about 15 feet and a fast moving moray just freaked me out when she got close before i even realized it! After the 4th run i got away!

I'm just curious how you know if a Moray is "it", "he" or "she".

 

[phillybob]

I'm just curious how you know if a Moray is "it", "he" or "she".

The one I had the run-in with had a big set of balls. If you look real hard you can see them in the pictures.

 

[101recon]

I'm just curious how you know if a Moray is "it", "he" or "she".

Actually,your question is also a good answer.
Some Morays are synchronous (simultaneously male and female).Some are sequential (they are male, later becoming female).So "it" may be the best term.

I don't know the validity of this,but in my research it has been suggested that sex can be determined by methods similar to those used for snakes.I won't go into details except to say that if this is attempted outside of a very controlled environment,you will get bit.Snakes do not care for the procedure in the slightest and I doubt Morays would either.

 

[rickdean]

I see large Green Morays all the time when I dive. We had one instance in Jupiter, Fl where there was a large one who had a steel fishing leader in his mouth and was likely starving to death, as it was snagged on some coral. The DM who was leading the dive and I cut the wire, close to his mouth, releasing it to hopefully lead a near normal life. It never tried to attack or bite us, but was probably grateful.

 

[AdvancedAquarist]

Yes. I have. but it attacked me in my aquarium not the ocean. its a small one though so it didn't hurt too much

 

[rjk75]

Was diving once off Venice Beach in Florida, no wetsuit just bathing suit and tee shirt in about 7 ft. Something got my attention suddenly--I felt a pinching like action on my inside thigh, up a little higher than I liked. Turned out it was a little Remora, a.k.a., Sharksucker. Little bugger scared me good!

 

[kaerius]

I was shocked to learn that Trigger fish are good biters too..and territorial. A Florida man got his pinky finger bitten off by one and a diver in Fiji lost a good portion of his ear....In Mexico we will catch them when fishing..(excellent cerviche) but they will do a real job on the lures with they're beaks and the will actually growl at you...I give them a lot of space too..escpecially if they are acting like they are protecting an area im swimming in...

They are territorial, especially in spawning season(mar-apr and oct-sep IIRC), but they can be aggressive if you get too close pretty much any time. Worst place to meet one is in a swim-through, or so I'm told... be especially careful with titan triggerfish, as they're the most aggressive ones.

Oh and their territory is cone shaped, with the cone tip on the bottom... don't try swimming up to get away from them, swim horizontal and/or down.

Reminds me, I should go prod a specific person about when he's going to post the video he shot of me getting attacked by a titan triggerfish while I was leading some fundivers... it ended well though, no bites, because I knew how to react(and was lucky), but it lasted a few minutes.

PS: Their bites being 'good' isn't so strange when you consider that their favorite foods include shellfish, and hard coral.

 

[JudyG]

Moray Eel "attack" -----> Cabo San Lucas

Titan Trigger fish attack (for real) - story not written by me, but the diver attacked was my husband -----> Indonesia Triggerfish Attack

I was charged by a free swimming moray in the north Galapagos several years ago - there were several eels out on the reef, in some sort of frenzied dance where they all looked a little, er, overstimulated. One of them charged me. I had to put up my camera to block the eel.

J.

 

[jjblomquist]

I was on a night dive in cozumel. and watched a spoted moray kill a small fish then eat it. There was a diver that was watching it and had his light right on the moray. I don't think the moray liked it it came dowm the reef at the diver snapping at him. finaly the DM can over and fined at it to get it to move away.
Also my moto is don't feed the Bears.