are garden eels dangerous

Garden Eel 

Garden Eel

The spotted garden eel ( Heteroconger haddi ) is a heteroconger belonging to the family Congridae. It is native to the Indo - Pacific.

The garden eels are the subfamily Heterochongrinae in the conger eel family Congridae. The majority of garden eels live in the Indo - Pacific, but species are also found in warmer parts of the Atlantic Ocean and East Pacific. These small eels live in burrows on the sea floor and get their name from their practice of poking their bodies remain hidden. Since they tend to live in groups, the many eel hands " growing " from the sea floor resemble the plants in a garden. They very greatly in colour depending on the exact species involved. The largest species reaches about 120 cm ( 47 in ) in length, but most species do not surpass 60 cm ( 24 in ). Garden eel colonies can grow as large as one acre in surface area.

Garden Eel

While diving in tropical waters, you may come across what appears to be a bed of seagrass gently moving with the current. But look more closely you many actually be swimming among a colony of spotted garden eels, slim and strawlike fish often mistaken for plants, which live the majority of their lives partially embedded in the sea floor. One of many species in the subfamily Heterochongrinae, spotted garden eels live in areas with strong currents, where they sway together in large groups, feeding on passing zooplankton there can be hundreds to thousands of eels in a single colony.

Garden eels may be small compared to other eel species, but what they lack in size, they make up for in muscle. H. Jassi uses its stuff, muscular tail to dig into the sandy seafloor, then secretes a slimy mucus that acts like cement to keep its burrow from caving in. When alarmed, garden eels withdraw tail first into the holes they've created in order to avoid predators. Shy and cautious, they will slowly extend their heads out of the burrow once the danger has passed.