Splendid Garden Eel

Emerge from burrows

Despite their name, garden eels do not live in gardens but on the ocean floor. The spotted garden eel forms large colonies, but each individual has its own burrow in which the eel stands upright, partly emerged. It turns towards the underwater current to catch prey that swims by. A group of hundreds of garden eels emerging from their burrows might, with a little imagination, look like plants sprouting in a garden.

Mucus as cement

A garden eel hardly ever emerges fully out of its burrow. The lower part of its body is powerful and pointy, so that it can dig down and create a perfect burrow. The skin of the garden eel then secretes a slimy mucus which acts like cement, stabilising the surrounding sand and keeping the burrow form caving in. If the garden eel feels threatened, it quickly disappears down into the sand.

Entwine their bodies together

The breeding season is one of very few occasions on which garden eels move. The males dig a new burrow closer to the female whose eggs he wants to fertilise. When she has picked a male, they extend their bodies out of the burrows enough to entwine their upper halves together. The fertilised eggs are then released into the water and the fry must fend for themselves when they hatch. At first, they live in the open water but when they are large enough, they seek out a colony where they can dig a burrow.