Tropical reef fish
Identity card
Not Evaluated
Distribution:
Red Sea and tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific.
Habitat:
The spotted garden-eel is 35-40 cm long and about 14 mm in diameter.
Size:
The spotted garden-eel is 35-40 cm long and about 14 mm in diameter.
Diet:
It feeds primarily on plankton.
At Nausicaá, garden-eels sometimes move to a different location during the night.
It is difficult to photograph in the wild because it detects the vibrations caused by the air bubbles of divers and hides as soon as they approach.
Its burrow, in the shape of a vertical tube, is dug between 7 and 45 metres deep on sandy slopes exposed to the currents but sheltered from the waves.
The spotted garden-eel lives on seagrass or sandy sea beds. It lives in colonies of several dozen to several hundred individuals. The space between the different garden-eels is constant.
The body of this fish is long and thin like the body of an eel. It can bury itself completely in the sand. It is fearful, only part of its body is visible, the rest of its body stays permanently in its hole. It stands upright, with its tail anchored in its burrow, into which it retreats when danger approaches.
Even during the breeding season, spotted garden-eels stay in their burrows. Male and female neighbours come together and intertwine before releasing sperm and eggs. Juveniles live deeper in their burrows than adults.
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