GARDEN EEL

CHARACTERISTICS: It tenses its muscular body to make it rigid and nails its pointed tail into the sandy seabed. The skin on the tail contains a hard substance which prevents it from getting damaged. Once the eel has buried itself to a sufficient depth, it moves its dorsal fin to remove sand from the hole. A viscous substance on the skin hardens the walls of the burrow and thereby avoids collapse.
DIET: It traps minute animals and eggs floating in the current.
REPRODUCTION: When it comes to the mating season, the males and females bring their burrows close together. Once the male has chosen a female to mate with, he defends her and moves her away from the rest. Garden eels deposit their fertilised eggs in the current. The eggs break and the larvae float until they reach a certain size. When they reach sufficient size, they swim to the bottom and build their own burrow.
CURIOSITIES: The astute snake eels nail themselves deep into the sand, far from the colonies of garden eels, in order to open a path to their burrows and attack them from underneath. They live in colonies of hundreds of individuals. The larger colonies, which up to 1000 eels can inhabit, live in fast-moving currents and deep sand. The larger males live in the centre of the colony and in the best areas in which to build their burrows and feed.