Talk:Moray eel

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): EvenBadScientistsCanObserve.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:27, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

cosmopolitan
What does "cosmopolitan" mean, as in "Moray eels are large cosmopolitan eels"? Kent Wang 17:00, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)


 * In an ecological sense, it means moray eels are widely distributed; they occur in many parts of the world's oceans. (Speaking in terms of the family as a whole rather than individual species.) -- Hadal 10:19, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * C'est moi! >LePierrotAnguille 05:33, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

As food
I had it once in Shanghai. It was delicious. Don't know enough about morays as food, but maybe someone more knowledgeable can jump in? Kent Wang 02:12, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm aware that many different cuisines, on at least 3 different contents have moray eel as a regular meal staple. I've seen it mostly deep fried, in an almost fish and chips like set up. If anyone has more specific dishes, I think it's important to add. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.79.118.109 (talk) 21:02, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Dean Martin

 * There's an eel with big teeth,
 * And it lives in a reef -
 * That's a moray...


 * Sorry!
 * - Astatine 16:22, 7 December 2006 (UTC)


 * My apologies for posting in the wrong section, but I am still figuring out how to use Wikipedia. I was wondering if more could be added about things like reproduction and feeding habits? I realize that the information about feeding habits is spread throughout the article, but perhaps it could be its own section, for to find information about when morays hunt I had to look under Reputation, and the information on what the moray eats (as well as the predators of the moray) was under Anatomy. Could information about anguilliform swimming or the nares also be added? Upsidedowndiver (talk) 14:45, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Reputation section -- unrealist portrayal of these gargantuan green monsters
The articles says:


 * Morays have sometimes been described as vicious or ill-tempered. In fact, morays are shy and secretive, and they only attack humans in self-defense.

I find this hard to believe about a species large enough to bite off a human leg and swallow it whole.


 * They also accidentally bite human fingers when being fed....

(1) How could something as enormous as a Moray eel manage to bite off something as small as a finger without taking the hand with it? Isn't this a bit like saying that a Tyrannosaurus rex might've accidentally bitten the toes off of rodents?

(2) Who in his right mind would ever get close enough to one of these giant, bright-green sea serpents to actually try and feed it? Is this some new, trendy method of suicide that I don't know about? (Has the human rase managed to adapt to the highly toxic material available in the so-called "coffee" at Starbucks?)


 * ...because it cannot see or hear very well....

Which would explain why fewer people have their heads taken off.


 * Morays hide from humans and would rather flee than fight.

Which is why these giant, bright green, anaconda-dwarfing sea monsters lie in wait for humans to pass by, snap them up, and swallow them whole. (And probably eat any giant squids, sperm whales, great white sharks, or anything else that gets too close.)

Morays, however, do inflict a nasty bite, because, although not poisonous.... ... They have mouths big enough to swallow an orca whole.

One thing I find curious is that the so-called "largest" Moray listed in this article is a tiny, minuscule little brown thing only about fourteen feet long. That's less than one quarter the size of thos hugee, bright green krakens that instantly come to mind when one thinks of a "Moray Eel". The subject of this article seems to be about unremarkable little nothing-eels that no-one would ever need fear, not the gargantuan green man-eaters that hunt ship-wrecks looking for SCUBA divers or even whole deep sea exploration vehicles to consume (whole). --Þorstejnn 10:24, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

--- Sarcasm aside, the references to their behavior, for the most part, lacks any cite or scientific data to support it whatsoever. From the articles cited, all we can definitively say is they live in burrows, are nocturnal, and sometimes hunt with groupers. There is nothing to back up the claims above their behavior with humans, which isn't to say it's untrue, just that it lacks references (and by reference I mean a scientific journal, not someone's Geocities page). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.145.127.70 (talk) 16:52, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

I am someone else than the person who wrote the paragraph above who would like to note that there are different species of morays, not all of them are big. So when people fed them, they must have fed the small ones. Also the giant ones are yellow, not green and their scientific name is Thyrsoidea Macrurus and is normally found in the Pacific. Credit: Creatures of the Sea Moray Eels By: Kris Hirschmann. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.45.70.94 (talk) 00:21, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Video of Moray eel attack
This video from the video sharing website Metacafe is currently receiving a good deal of publicity. Is it notable enough for the article? -- ♦Ian Ma c M♦  (talk to me) 11:28, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
 * It is not suited for an encyclopedia. It gives totally wrong signals. As shown in this video, they are dangerous. Moray eels are not pets to be fed. JoJan (talk) 14:36, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

cosmpolitatn
Wikipedians have some jarring word choices. Cosmo is a fine word for a specialist, but silly here. It's a distraction and acting fancy. Since the definition is given in the Distribution sentence, the word itself adds no value. Moreover it's repeated in the lede and then in a one-sentence section. 72.82.52.106 (talk) 12:55, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Origin of Name
Why is it a "Moray" Eel? Is Moray a person or a place? None of the Morays on the disambiguation page seem to fit. Perhaps someone could add this information. Tigerboy1966 (talk) 08:25, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
 * According to the OED, the word" moray" is derived from the Portuguese word moréia, itself derived from the Latin word Muraena JoJan (talk) 17:15, 4 February 2010 (UTC).
 * Here's the source . I think it should be added. Martinevans123 (talk) 19:00, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Can we add this picture to the article while were at it? --Hillbillyholiday talk 20:01, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I've haddock enough of this plaice! Martinevans123 (talk) 20:28, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
 * A gill-ty plesiosaur? --Billy the Fish
 * Just the eel good factor. Martyfish123 (talk) 20:55, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
 * refrains from wading into this morayss of puns--Mr Fink (talk) 21:23, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
 * ... well, we'll see about that. Martinevans123 (talk) 22:06, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
 * This scampi happening. --Hillbillyholiday talk 22:45, 11 December 2016 (UTC)

Jaws
There is quite a bit of research out there concerning moray eel jaws, and I was thinking of creating a new subheading under "Anatomy" which would cover the shape of the jaw and how Morays have uniquely adapted jaws to cover their particular feeding styles. This is already alluded to near the beginning of the "Anatomy" section, though it could certainly be rolled into this section, and there is quite a bit more detail that I think could be added without becoming too abstruse for wikipedia. Thoughts? EvenBadScientistsCanObserve (talk) 00:19, 28 April 2018 (UTC)
 * What can be added to the teeth and pharyngeal jaws topics? If you have useful things to add that don't go off-topic, just do it! Rhinopias (talk) 21:14, 28 April 2018 (UTC)

Size?
Can we have a brief discussion of the size of these eels? Attic Salt (talk) 01:59, 12 May 2020 (UTC)