i have had many urges…. but i have never booped her
luckily she’s a timid sweetheart and probably would just hide if i ever tried to boop her.
she’s only ever bitten me once! It hurt quite a bit but she doesn’t have anywhere close to the power needed to take off a finger.
Moray eels don’t crunch or slice. They have sharp, backward-pointing, needle-like teeth, meant to grab and hold until their pharyngeal jaws (tiny secret Alien-style throat jaws) can dart out, grab the food, and pull it down their throat.
It’s a similar idea to a snake- the bite is gonna hurt, and it’s gonna be hard to get all the teeth out of yourself if they don’t let go, but it’ll just be puncture marks without any real serious damage. It has to be a huge moray to cause any severe damage. One of multiple reasons why morays aren’t dangerous, that and their lack of aggression. If you don’t poke one in the face or stick your hand in one’s burrow, you won’t get bit.
that is true for most morays! however snowflakes evolved to eat mostly crustaceans and so they actually have small, cone-shaped teeth for crushing the exoskeletons of crabs and shrimp!
you can see her teeth alright in this gif
Ooh, cool! I haven’t seen snowflake teeth up close, just some others. Green morays in aquariums and something in Hawaii I didn’t manage to ID.
Yeah, that could probably do some serious damage if it was in the mouth of something much bigger. A smaller eel like Noodle, I’d think maybe some bruising if she hung on or bit down hard. Did she draw blood at all?
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