The spotted garden eel is white and has multiple small black spots on its body. It also has a large black spot on its gill cover, anus, and 5 other locations in between its gill cover and anus.

They are found on the Pacific Ocean side of southern Japan, Indian Ocean, and West Pacific Ocean. They can grow up to be 40 cm in length. They live around coral reefs in sandy areas with a strong current. Each of them digs a hole in which they live in. They stretch their heads out of these holes and eat zooplanktons that come by. When in danger, they hide in these holes. When hiding in sand, they wave their bodies and dig a hole. At night, they sleep in them as well.

In Japan, they are called “Chin Anago” because its face looks like a Japanese Chin dog.

At Kagoshima City Aquarium, we feed them small amounts of brine shrimp over a long period of time so that visitors can see them out of their holes more often.