Fishes - Australian Museum Fish Site

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Spotted Garden Eel
Heteroconger hassi (Klausewitz & Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1959)

Spotted Garden Eel
Spotted Garden eels at a depth of 17m, Mantis Reef, Wreck Bay, far northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, December 1999. View larger image.

The Spotted Garden Eel has a white body covered in small black spots. There are three prominent black patches located on the body. One surrounds the gill opening and pectoral fin, the second is half way along the body and the third surrounds the anus. Juveniles are entirely black.

This species grows to 60cm in length.

It is usually seen on sandy bottoms near coral reefs at depths of 15m to 45m.

The Spotted Garden Eel was not discovered until SCUBA diving became popular. Since then colonies of hundreds or thousands of individuals have been reported.

This fish lives in sandy burrows, which they construct. When feeding, the Spotted Garden Eel rises out of its burrow, exposing up to two-thirds of its body. It feeds on zooplankton taken from the passing current.

When disturbed the Spotted Garden Eel retreats backwards into the burrow.

Spotted Garden Eels stay in their burrow even when spawning. Potential mates stretch over from adjacent burrows and entwine bodies.

This species occurs in tropical marine waters of the Indo-Pacific region, from East Africa, north to Japan, south to New Caledonia and east to the Pitcairn Islands.

In Australia the Spotted Garden Eel is known from the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.

View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.

Further reading

  1. Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 220.
  2. Castle, P.H.J. & J.E. Randall. 1999. Revision of Indo-Pacific garden eels (Congridae: Heterocongrinae), with descriptions of five new species. Indo-Pacific Fishes No. 30: 1-52, Pls. I-III.
  3. Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 415.
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