Garden Eel Care Guide

Glossary:

Care Guide & Requirements
Reef Safe
Prices
Food & Diet
Facts
Tank Mates & Environment
FAQs

If you’re an expert aquarist looking for an interesting addition to your tank, the Garden Eel can be a great option with some potential caveats. This eel, scientific name Heteroconger hassi, has some strict demands that can make it challenging to care for, but this can be a rewarding experience for more advanced hobbyists.

In this guide to the Garden Eel, we’ll explore what this species requires to help you determine whether it’s right for you.

Is the Garden Eel reef safe?

What makes the Garden Eel especially unique is its reef-safe nature. While other moray eels are potentially safe to keep in reef tanks, the Garden Eel is entirely safe.

Garden Eel food and diet

Garden Eels aren’t picky eaters and feed on zooplankton that drifts by them, but this method of eating can prove challenging to recreate in a captive environment. You must have a gentle current that ensures the Garden Eel receives zooplankton regularly. If the eel must remove its tail from its burrow to feed, it simply won’t eat.

An automatic system will help create a consistent flow of zooplankton that will keep your Garden Eel well-fed.

Garden Eel FAQs

How long do Garden Eels live?

Garden Eels are known for living for many years, which is part of why they’re best-suited for expert carers. Specifically, the average lifespan of a Garden Eel is somewhere between 35 to 40 years. To ensure they live a long and healthy life, they require sufficient care, including regular feedings, plenty of space in a 40-gallon tank or larger, a steady gentle current, and a minimum of six inches of sand.

Why do Garden Eels face the same direction?

Garden Eels often feed on zooplankton that floats in the water with the current. Because of this, Garden Eels in a single colony tend to face the opposite direction of the current to catch the zooplankton as it passes them.

How do Garden Eels reproduce?

Interestingly, Garden Eels are what are known as pelagic spawners, meaning they reproduce by releasing fertilized eggs into the water, where the current carries them to the surface. After the eggs hatch, the Garden Eels gradually grow until they retreat to the sea floor, where they form colonies and burrow into the sand.

Garden Eel price

These eels aren’t too uncommon or large, so you won’t need to spend too much on them. Their pricing generally varies between around $30 to $70 depending on where you look.

Garden Eel facts

The following are some interesting facts you might not have known about the Garden Eel:

Garden Eels burrow into the sand at the bottom of the ocean. They use their tails to do so and remain in place while waiting for food to come along.
These eels have great visibility that helps them spot and identify predators and prey. This is part of why they have such a long average lifespan.
People refer to them as “garden” eels because of their tendency to colonize in their burrows, making them look like groups of plants in a garden.

What other fish are the best tank mates for the Garden Eel?

The need for plenty of sand to provide a burrow makes other Garden Eels and sand-dwelling tank mates ideal to accompany your eel.

In addition to other Garden Eels, you can keep your eel with everything from sea cucumbers and hermit crabs to Nassarius and Cerith snails. However, you should avoid keeping your eel with any aggressive and competitive fish.

Where to buy Garden Eels

You can find the Garden Eel at many aquarium shops, with some online sellers including:

While it might be difficult to maintain the perfect environment for Garden Eels, it’s possible to recreate the ideal natural lifestyle in your tank. However, the challenges of keeping these eels make it important to have some expertise before buying them.