brown garden eel

Open encyclopedia reference

The brown garden eel (Heteroconger longissimus), also known simply as the garden eel, is an eel in the family Congridae (conger/garden eels). It was described by Albert Günther in 1870. It is a tropical, marine eel which is known from the eastern and western Atlantic Ocean, including Madeira, the Canary Islands, Senegal, the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, the Caribbean, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Brazil. It dwells at a depth of 10–60 m, most commonly between 20 and 60 m, and leads a nonmigratory, benthic lifestyle, inhabiting reefs in colonies. They likely spawn during the warm season. The larval state of development lasts for about 6–8 months. Adult males can reach a maximum total length of 51 centimetres (20 in; 1.67 ft).

The brown garden eel's diet consists primarily of detritus and plankton.

Wikipedia contributors, Brown garden eel; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:08:10.512554+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Heteroconger longissimus Günther, 1870

Name authority

Günther, 1870

Common name

brown 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.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. orderAnguilliformes
11. familyCongridae Kaup, 1856
12. subfamilyHeterocongrinae Günther, 1870
13. genusHeteroconger Bleeker, 1868
14. speciesHeteroconger longissimus Günther, 1870

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Heteroconger. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 190 records assigned to Congridae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

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.

1. Günther, A. (1870). Catalogue of the fishes in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Physostomi, containing the families Gymnotidae, Symbranchidae, Muraenidae, Pegasidae, and of the Lophobranchii, Plectognathi, Dipnoi, ...[thru] ... Leptocardii, in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum., v. 8: i–xxv + 1–549. 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:3L8RS. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.