Spotted Garden Eel

Photo: François Libert · CC BY-NC-SA

Sandy terraces at 12 to 18 m host dense colonies of spotted garden eels, their bodies swaying in unison as they filter zooplankton from the tidal current — then vanishing simultaneously into their burrows at a diver's approach. The colonies here are among the largest reported in Oman, covering patches of seafloor 20 m across. They are an important prey item for garden eels' primary predators — flathead fish and lizardfish — completing a compact food chain visible in a single slow drift over the sand.