Spotted Garden Eel

The spotted garden eel belongs in the family Congridae. Most spotted garden eels live in the Indo-Pacific Ocean and in the Red Sea. The creatures live in colonies on sandy flats and slopes around coral reefs and sometimes you will find them even in seagrass beds. These tiny eels only have a body diameter of 1.3 cm but can get up to 24 inches long! The longest one on record is about 47 inches! In appearance, since this species is considered sexually dimorphic (meaning males and females look different), the male eels are much larger with their jaws sticking out further. The color of the eel depends on the specific species you are looking at. As you see pictured, garden eels burrow themselves into the sandy flats. These “garden colonies” they create can be as big as 1 acre. For them to fit into the sand they will make their body rigid by tightening their muscles and digging down, tail first. Using their dorsal fin, they wiggle all the sand out of the burrow. Once they do this, they will secrete slime to make the burrow solid, so it does not cave in. The garden eel rarely leaves its burrow, only bobbing in and out of the burrow to eat tiny plankton that float in the water current and to protect itself.

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