Once located, the octopus is surprised by the moray's powerful jaws, which promptly clamp onto its soft body. The octopus will wrap its many tentacles around the head of the eel but to no avail. The slippery moray will tie a knot in its tail and move the knot up its body until it has pushed the tentacles off. If the octopus is too big to swallow whole, then the m oray will eat it tentacle by tentacle. If the poor octopus is able to escape with some tentacles left, the missing ones will grow back.
Morays can be quite efficient predators on a variety of prey.
In addition to hunting for octopuses, they are good at squeezing their heads into small openings in the coral where small fish hide. They have also been known to hide in eelgrass beds and ambus h unsuspecting reef animals. While they do not eat people, if provoked, they can do serious damage with their powerful jaws.