Giant moray

Photo: Luis P. B. · CC BY-NC

Giant morays reach 3 m at Marsa Mubarak's fringing reef, where they occupy permanent territories in large coral heads and are often found resting with jaws rhythmically opening and closing to pump water across their gills. They are cooperative hunters, sometimes teaming with roving coral groupers to flush prey from crevices in behaviour documented by researchers as one of the few known cross-species cooperative hunting partnerships in fish. Despite their fearsome appearance they are rarely aggressive to stationary divers.