Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Heterocongrinae
Subfamily of Congridae From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
The garden eels are the subfamily Heterocongrinae in the conger eel family Congridae. The majority of the 36 known species of garden eels live in the Indo-Pacific, but can be found in warm ocean water worldwide.[1][2][3] These small eels live in burrows on the sea floor and get their name from the behavior of poking their heads from their burrows to feed on plankton while most of their bodies remain hidden. Since they tend to live in groups, the many eel heads "growing" from the sea floor resemble the plants in a garden. They vary in color and size depending on the species. The largest species reaches about 120 cm (47 in) in length, but most species do not surpass 60 cm (24 in).[1][2] Garden eel colonies can grow as large as one acre in surface area and number up to several thousand individuals.[4][5]
Remove ads
Genera
Hetercongrinae contains the following two genera:[6]
- Gorgasia Meek & Hildebrand, 1923
- Heteroconger Bleeker, 1868
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads