Thanks to the tetrodotoxin surprise in their livers and other organs, most fish in the Tetraodontidae family, more commonly known as pufferfish or blowfish, are extremely poisonous. Fugu chefs in Japan train for years in order to prepare them for human consumption – even a small mistake can end very badly for daring diners. Clearly, these are creatures that should command caution from the rest of the animal kingdom. This moray eel, however, appears to have missed the memo:

The footage was captured by Vital Bazarov during a night dive in the Red Sea off the coast of Dahab, Egypt. In the clip, the eel hovers over the pufferfish for a couple seconds before striking. After a brief struggle, it's all over, and the eel swallows its meal whole.

Despite the dangers of dining on pufferfish, the predation looks to be business as usual for the opportunistic moray eel. As we've reported before, these animals – which can grow to ten feet (around three metres) in length and weigh up to 66 pounds (30kg) – will try their luck on just about anything that passes by (even sharks!). 

In addition to their opportunistic ways, moray eels are also ambush predators, and their lightning-quick strikes are assisted by a set of pharyngeal jaws. Distinct from their normal jaws, these are located in the back of the throat, and are designed to hold seized prey in place while the primary jaws do their work. Once the meal is suitably pacified, the pharyngeal jaws pull prey into the eel's digestive tract.

But if you're wondering what happened to this particular moray after its potentially toxic lunch (not all puffer species are poisonous), we have to admit we don't know. Some predators have evolved resistance to tetrodotoxin-packed prey (like these newt-eating common garter snakes), but after checking in with a number of experts, we've come up with no info on whether eels can also stomach it (if you can shed some light on the mystery, let us know in the comments!)

Meanwhile, if you're up for more moray eel-versus-pufferfish battles, here's a more protracted contest: