:lol:
And as for you, Slief, you are a crazy, crazy man. Love the pictures, but the story of how powerful Gorby was, that makes my blood go cold. He sounds great when he was being affectionate. I didn't know Morays would get that affectionate! But biting he shark in half? Dude that could have been your arm.
( shiver)
I've been called crazy on many occasions. No doubt I resemble that remark. Inspite of the shark incident, I never had any fears or concerns about handling the eel. The shark was in the food chain but I was not. Unlike the shark, the eel and I had a symbiotic relationship and the eel knew that.
Most large morays are very docile. I've handled wild ones while scuba diving on more than one occasion and would litterally pet them them when I stumbled upon them. You just can't put your fingers in front of their face because if they mistake you for food or if they feel terribly threatened, they will bite.
Back in the day, I actually tried to catch them by hand while diving in an effort to bring them back to one of my tanks. There was this rocky reef in Laguna Beach California that we called Thousand Steps. This place bordered a marine sanctuary and there were dozens of very large and fat California morays all over the rocky reefs.
The Calfornia morays differ a bit from the Caribian one and other tropcal morays. The Ca ones don't get quite as long but get about double the width of their warm water counterparts. A 4' moray could be 10" or more in diameter. They get silly fat and are very mellow in the colder water.
I acquired a bottle of Quinaldine which is a tranquilizer used frequently for marine fish during transport. I'd mix that with isopropyl alcohal which suspends the Quinaldine in the water. I filled up large syringes with the mixture and was experimenting with different dosages.. I used a 2' piece of rigid airline tubing to extend the syringe. I'd swim up to the wild California Morays and stick the tube into their mount and empty the contents of the syringe in an effort to tranquilize them so I could pull them out of the rocks and put them in my dive bag. That was the plan at least. After playing with my mixture on several successive dives and not having luck knocking one out, I finally got frustrated and reached in the rocks and grabbed a big fat one by the scruff of the neck using my bare hands. My buddy was on the surface keeping his distance while also keeping a watchful eye on me. When I grabbed this moray, I could hear (10' above me) my buddy let out a scream in pure shock at what I was attempting. Frankly, I was young and dumb and it was really a stupid thing to do. I still can't beleive what I was attemtping let alone the fact that I had every intent on bringing this poor eel home to put in my tank. In hind site, it was a completely stupid and cruel idea but like I said, I was young and dumb back then.
Needless to say, the eel wasn't terribly enamored with my attempts to catch it. I yanked it out of the rocks and it did a quick twist of it's body and was free of my hands looking right into my eyes. A moment later he swam off. It was worth a good laugh and a lifetime memory that neither I nor my buddy Gregg will ever forget.
Slief
How long do green Morays live? Could he still be alive now? We should do a search through social media to find Gorby and reunite him with you!
Up to 30 years under ideal cicurmstances. I was wondering that myself the other night afte posting this. I don't think he's still alive but I plan on going down the my buddy's shop tomorrow and will ask if he can tell me the name of the dentist office where the eel was just so I can satisfy my curiosity. I've inquired before and I know the shop owner lost contact wiith the customer many years back. If he were still alive, I would be really surprised. Those pictures were taken over 22 years ago. That is a long time in terms of captive fish and he was several years old at the time of those photos.
If I found him, I would absolutely setup a tank for him. Not that I have any desire for more tanks but for him, I would make an exception. That eel was one of a kind and he is one of only a couple pets that I've always missed. I've put my hands in the water with many eels since and I am sure I could easily tame another if I had the desire which fortunately I do not. Keeping fish that large is a lot of work and a real stinking pain with all the food. I was feeding pounds of raw fish and squid evey day and it was costly and tiring. Ultimately those were major factors in my quitting sharks and eels and moving to reef. This was despite the fact that I made good money importing and distributing exotic sharks and eels. My lazy nature didn't work well for that endeavor but it was a lot of fun while it lasted and a good write off.
