A garden eel of open sand, standing out of its burrow to feed on plankton and withdrawing as a diver approaches. A slow approach on the bottom is the only way to photograph one.
To about 51 cm. Extremely elongate and compressed with the tail much longer than the head and trunk. The front two-thirds is dark brown flecked with small pale spots and grades to yellow at the rear, with a white belly, though only the head and forebody are ever out of the burrow, angled into the current.
Two other garden eels share the region and the pale-flecked dark brown forebody grading to yellow behind separates this one.
Ten to sixty metres, usually twenty to sixty, on open sand. Each eel holds its own burrow in a colony, anchored by the tail with the head reaching up into the current for zooplankton, and withdraws when frightened. No withdrawal distance has been measured for this species.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
