Fish of The Week

Last Update : Sunday 30 September, 2001 9:43 PM




		Illust : Anuwat Saisaeng

Giant Moray



Scientific name	Gymnothorax javanicus
Common name	Giant Moray
Size	2.5 meters
Dispersion	Found both in the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea.
Area found	Demersal fish. Found around rock piles
Depth	5 – 40 meters
Feed on	Other animals, especially, shrimps and small fishes
Situation	Getting to be difficult to be met, particularly large ones.
Conservation	Plenty are caught for food.
Fish Tip	Not as ferocious as appeared. But be ware, do not get too close, especially large ones.

          Moray does not bite…Moray does not bite.

          I tried to repeat the above sentence while looking at the one in front of me, giant moray. May be it is better to call him Phya Naga. I know that things look 25% larger in the water. But even with 50% reduction in size, this is the largest moray I have ever seen. The text said 2.5 meters, right? This one is definitely longer. I did not know how long, though. Who would risk measuring him?

          Moray eel is in Family Muraenidae. There are about 70 species of them. All of them look similar, long body with pointed mouth, no scale but thick skin with slippery mucus instead. The gill has reduced in shape to be a small hole beside pelvic that has also reduced in shape as well. That was why moray has to gape all the time to help breathing. Many people understand that behavior as threatening.

          Moray is fed on meat. The seaweed-nibbling version has not been born yet. They use nostrils – two round muscles protruding from top of the mouth - to search for prey. These nostrils are very sensitive to odour like wounded shrimps, wounded fish. Moray would swim briskly to the prey before taking a bite.

          They come out for food in the middle of the night. Normally we meet moray stretching out the head from the hole for about ¼ of the body length, gaping, moving the head slightly. It is difficult to meet them in the daytime, although possible. Moray likes swimming around at night very much. We can almost be shocked if we meet them in a peekaboo manner.

          Fish in this Family would rarely do us any harm. I have met thousands of moray without being bitten. Some people like to touch coral rocks, thinking that it is all right since they have their gloves on. (Their hands are all right. If the coral is dead, let it be.) Suppose they caught a coral with moray underneath, I would be a sight!

          Moray’s teeth are very sharp indeed and the jaws are locked when biting. If we were frightened, trying to pull our hand away, the teeth would cut into our flesh in stripes. Such wounds have to be stitched only.

          Moray might be ferocious during mating period. Probability of this to happen is very slim. I have only heard about a diver being chased away by moray. That was only a moment long, not chasing after to kill.

          Back to the picture I saw. That particular moray resided at Black Rock. I met him while making a night dive in the Burmese Sea. He caused me nightmares afterward. I had never seen a larger one…not even in Australian Sea where I regularly go diving in the past.

          There goes my space! Let us make it that our Talaythai fans who have seen moray and sent me an e-mail asking what he was should have known him by now. Next time you meet him, do not be afraid. If he grits his teeth, you just grit yours. Who do you think will win?

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