Moray eel is a fish that loves to hunt in coral reefs. It does not have paired fins and gill covers, and it resembles a snake rather than a fish, but this animal belongs to the order of eel-shaped bone fish.
Moray eel
Moray eels lives in the seas around the world where the temperature of the water suits them. Incredibly, the maximum recorded length of the moray eel body was almost 4 meters.
Although these fish do not have the sharpest vision, they always find prey. Their sense of smell is four times superior to canine. The size of moray eels differs depending on the species to which they belong, some moray eels the size of a human palm, others reach 3 meters in length. Although the skin of this fish is not protected by scales, it is not in danger, it will be injured on the sharp edges of pitfalls, its entire body is covered with a thick layer of mucus, and this protects the fish from external damage.
Why does moray eel constantly open its mouth?
Despite the more modest size of these predators, their manner of constantly opening and closing their mouths looks rather scary. Although in reality this habit is not associated with intimidation, but with the breath of moray eels, opening its mouth, it expels oxygen-rich water through the gills. However, if the mouth remains open, you need to be careful, the moray eel easily goes into the attack, instantly shutting its mouth. Watching the moray eel, you can find out how powerful and crooked her teeth are.The bite of this fish is very dangerous, its teeth are not only extremely sharp, but also very dirty, so the moray bite can cause severe inflammation, in addition, they are also serrated, one bite and the victim can not escape. The flexible, muscular body of moray eels can squeeze into the narrowest crevice.
Moray eels prefer to hide in caves and crevices among coral reefs, and usually leave their shelters only at night to hunt. During the day you can only see the head of this fish sticking out of the shelter; as a rule, it has been using the same cave all its life. Larger moray eels can have several such shelters, sometimes at a distance of 200 meters from each other. Often cleaning fish live in company with moray eels, moray eel opens its mouth, and the moder removes food leftovers stuck between her teeth, this is a mutually beneficial alliance, and moray eels do not eat them. This fish prefers to eat at night and uses a cover of darkness to capture sleeping prey. But sometimes in the afternoon she is too hungry to ignore all these delicacies swarming around.
Moray eels are quite short-sighted, but they have such a scent that it is better not to mess with them. The large area of the inner surface of the nose makes them extremely sensitive to odors. During night hunting, an increased sense of smell makes up for visual impairments, so for safety, other fish are better off staying away from coral reefs.
Barracuda
There are other predators that love to hunt in reefs. This predator is distinguished by a lightning attack and swimming style, reminiscent of an arrow flight - we are talking about barracuda.With a body length of 30 cm to, in rare cases, 2 meters, barracuda is inferior in size to other sea hunters, but this is offset by the speed of movement. Her boom-like, extremely slender and streamlined body allows her, at a short distance, to sail twice as fast as a motor boat.
The mouth of the barracuda is equipped with huge fangs, mainly located in the lower jaw. Sharp as scissors, teeth penetrate deep into the flesh of the victim and inflict very serious wounds. These silvery, quick creatures, masters of observation, they have excellent eyesight, they have excellent ability to orient themselves, even in troubled waters, this helps them easily find prey.
Often barracudas settle in the waters of sea harbors, or in the bays often visited by tourists, this inevitably leads them to unplanned meetings with people.
Adult barracudas are very self-confident, they violently defend their territory from aliens, whether it be a marine resident or a person. Some barracudas settle on rocky shallows, here, as if in a fortress, they spend time in between sessions of reef hunting. As for speed, barracudas have no equal, they do not leave their victims time to think.
The mouth of the barracuda slams in just 41 milliseconds. If there were races in the ocean, barracudas would certainly be the first at the finish line. Once the barracuda accelerates, it moves in the water like a torpedo. Barracuda is the fastest of the marine inhabitants, capable of speeds of about 50 km per hour.
Little is known about the breeding of barracudas.Like most bone fish, they toss eggs directly into the water, where the larvae then turn into adults. An adult barracuda would never be satisfied with a trifle, but would rather hunt mackerel on the high seas. These fast-moving fish can even catch young tuna. Barracudas are found not only in the Pacific Ocean, but also in tropical and subtropical seas, and have been seen even in the Mediterranean Sea.
Barracudas are very fast and deadly predators that are quite widespread in the world. Compared to other predators, their main weapon is the speed and surprise of the attack. Even if we sometimes want the victim to slip away from this killer, barracuda is an important facet of the diversity of the underwater world. And we are fortunate that such skillful hunters live in our oceans.
