The Galapagos garden eel[1] (Heteroconger klausewitzi) is an eel in the family Congridae (conger/garden eels).[2] It was described by Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt and Friedmann Köster in 1983, originally under the genus Taenioconger.[3] It is a marine, tropical eel which is known from the eastern central and southeastern Pacific Ocean, including Colombia, Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, and Panama.[4] It dwells at a depth of 10to, and lives in large, nonmigratory colonies in clean, sandy substrates. Males can reach a maximum total length of 70cm (30inches).[2]
The fish is named in honor of German ichthyologist Wolfgang Klausewitz, who visited the Galápagos Islands where this eel occurs, with the senior author in the 1950s.[5]
The diet of the Galapagos garden eel consists of zooplankton.[6] Due to its widespread distribution in the eastern Pacific, lack of major threats, and lack of observed population decline, the IUCN redlist currently lists the species as Least Concern.[4]