A field of banded eels standing out of the sand like grass, all facing the same way, all sinking out of sight as a diver approaches and rising again behind. Forty centimeters (16 in) of eel, of which about half is ever visible.
They never leave. Each eel builds a burrow, lines it with mucus from its own skin to keep the walls from collapsing, and spends its entire adult life in it - feeding, sleeping, fighting with neighbors and even mating without ever coming out. A male reaching across to a female in the next burrow, both anchored by their tails, is as far as courtship goes.
The colony is spaced almost geometrically, because the spacing is exactly the distance at which two eels cannot reach each other. Each faces into the current and picks copepods out of the flow one at a time, all day.
This is the striking one - orange-banded, in deeper water than the plain garden eels, usually from eighteen meters down. Approach along the bottom, slowly, and stop while they are still up; swim at them and there is nothing to see but sand.
- slender body with bold orange-yellow bands on white
- stands vertically out of the sand, curved like a question mark
- in colonies of dozens to hundreds, evenly spaced
- length up to 40 cm
Why it's threatened
This species is not believed to have any major threats.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
