Cape garden eel
Heteroconger canabus (Cowan & Rosenblatt, 1974)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The white-ring garden eel (Heteroconger canabus), also known as the Cape garden eel in Mexico, is an eel in the family Congridae (conger/garden eels). It was described by Garry I. McTaggart-Cowan and Richard Heinrich Rosenblatt in 1974, originally under the genus Taenioconger. It is a marine, tropical eel which is known from the Gulf of California, in the eastern central Pacific Ocean. It is known to dwell at a depth of 20 m (66 ft), and inhabits sand sediments near reefs, where it forms burrows in nonmigratory colonies. Males can reach a maximum total length of 80 cm (31 in; 2.6 ft).
The white-ring garden eel's diet consists of zooplankton. It is currently listed as Data Deficient at the IUCN redlist due to dispute over its taxonomy, although it notes that if valid, the species may be under threat as a result of inhabiting an intrareef region in a range restricted to 1,000 km2.
Wikipedia contributors, White-ring garden eel; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:06:10.649158+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Heteroconger canabus (Cowan & Rosenblatt, 1974)
- Name authority
- (Cowan & Rosenblatt, 1974)
- Common name
- Cape garden eel
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Anguilliformes
- Family
- Congridae
- Genus
- Heteroconger
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderAnguilliformes
- familyCongridae Kaup, 1856
- subfamilyHeterocongrinae Günther, 1870
- genusHeteroconger Bleeker, 1868
- speciesHeteroconger canabus (Cowan & Rosenblatt, 1974)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Heteroconger. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Heteroconger cobra Böhlke & Randall, 1981 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger congroides (D'Ancona, 1928) | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cortez garden eelHeteroconger digueti (Pellegrin, 1923) | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger enigmaticus Castle & Randall, 1999 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger hassi (Klausewitz & Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1959) | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger klausewitzi (Eibl-Eibesfeldt & Köster, 1983) | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger lentiginosus Böhlke & Randall, 1981 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger obscurus (Klausewitz & Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1959) | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| speckled garden eelHeteroconger pellegrini Castle, 1999 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger tomberua Castle & Randall, 1999 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger balteatus Castle & Randall, 1999 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger mercyae Allen & Erdmann, 2009 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Taenioconger canabus Cowan & Rosenblatt, 1974 Cowan & Rosenblatt, 1974 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=271775 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3L8RG. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.