[Coral-List] Moray eel behavior

[Eduardo Sampaio]

Hey,

I thought of scent as well at first, but why would you rub your scent in
your prey's den? Also apparently the octopus came back 40 minutes after and
was pretty chill, so ut doesn't seem that there were leftover predator
cues. My hunch was more in the direction of the moray eel frantically
looking for the octopus due to the strong scent that was there (female
octopus visited by at least two different males recently).. But I think I
like the ectoparasite removal explanation better honestly! The body posture
seems to indicate more a rubbing than a searching behavior.. No, I was sent
this video by the camera operator, so I don't know if they do it in
non-octopus places as well, would be cool to know!

Cheers,
Eduardo

On Fri, May 27, 2022, 12:36 Fritz Francisco <fritz.a.francisco at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hey Eduardo,
>
> I saw your post on Twitter as well. I suspect your „hunch“ is that the
> Moray is depositing its scent in order to let the octopus know it was
> there? That would at least be my intuition. However, removing ectoparasites
> sounds plausible too. Have you seen this behaviour occur in non-oktopus
> caves?
>
> Very cool!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Fritz
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On 27. May 2022, at 11:27, Elizabeth Theresa Celia via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> >
> > Of course, he could be trying to remove parasites. If in fact the
> octopus
> > is not there, the eels could be trying to remove ectoparasites by rubbing
> > and scratching on the substrate. I've seen that before diving. They even
> > will come up for a scratch. Interesting footage.
> >
> > Elizabeth
> >
> >> On Thu, May 26, 2022 at 2:20 PM Elizabeth Theresa Celia <
> ethc4918 at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi!
> >> I have seen battles between moray eels and octopuses before. This looks
> >> like a classic case of an octopus attack. There is a lot of activity on
> the
> >> reef and a lot of feeding, which most likely attracted the eel.
> Undetected
> >> by the eel, the octopus was still inside the coral, and tried to pull
> the
> >> eel inside. Luckily for the eel, it was able to finally escape. It's
> hard
> >> to see for sure any wounds on the eel; whether the rosy spots are indeed
> >> wounds or stress coloring. The eel seems disinterested in the octopus
> and
> >> just wants to get away.
> >> It is true that octopus are a yummy meal for the eel along with fish and
> >> invertebrates. But most likely, the eel found the structure, not
> realizing
> >> that the octopus was inside, and was ambushed.
> >>
> >> Best,
> >> Elizabeth
> >>
> >> On Thu, May 26, 2022 at 8:13 AM Eduardo Sampaio via Coral-List <
> >> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hi everyone,
> >>>
> >>> Has anyone seen this type of behavior in moray eels and knows more
> about
> >>> it?
> >>>
> >>> https://twitter.com/OctoEduardo/status/1528283147103870976
> >>>
> >>> I was sent this clip and am very curious on what it could be.
> >>>
> >>> All the best,
> >>> Eduardo
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Coral-List mailing list
> >>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> >>> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> >>>
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>