Spotted Garden Eel

• GeneralIt lives buried in the sand in colonies that sway like a garden of plants.
• It never leaves its burrow: it builds the tube by secreting a mucus that hardens the sand and, at any danger, withdraws inside in an instant.
• It mates without leaving the hole: two neighbours stretch out until they intertwine, each keeping its tail inside its own burrow.
• A colony can hold from hundreds to thousands of individuals, each in its own burrow and at a fixed distance from its neighbours. Seen from afar they look like a meadow of seagrass swaying in the current.
• It digs with its tail, not its head: it uses the rigid, muscular rear end as a spike, then secretes a mucus that acts as cement and stops the tunnel collapsing.
• It never comes out entirely. It extends about a third of its body, points its mouth into the current and catches zooplankton; at any threat it vanishes in a flash, backwards.
• Its body has between 163 and 177 vertebrae, and its dorsal fin between 449 and 540 rays.
• In the breeding season individuals shift their burrows closer together until they can touch; it is the only occasion on which they move.
• The species honours Hans Hass, the Austrian biologist and underwater film-maker.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (fish)

Habitat and environment

Sandy bottoms beside coral reefs

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Heteroconger hassi