''Heteroconger obscurus'', the obscure garden eel,Common names of ''Heteroconger obscurus''
at www.fishbase.org. is an

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

in the family

Congridae The Congridae are the family of conger and garden eels. Congers are valuable and often large food fishes, while garden eels live in colonies, all protruding from the sea floor after the manner of plants in a garden (thus the name). The family in ...

(conger/garden eels).''Heteroconger obscurus''
at www.fishbase.org. It was described by

Wolfgang Klausewitz Wolfgang Klausewitz (20 July 1921 – 31 August 2018) was a German zoologist, ichthyologist, marine biologist and biohistorian. Early life Klausewitz was born in Berlin. He attended school in Berlin, then, in 1941, was sent as a soldier to North ...

and

Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt (; 15 June 1928 – 2 June 2018) was an Austrian ethologist in the field of human ethology. In authoring the book which bears that title, he applied ethology to humans by studying them in a perspective more common to vo ...

in 1959, originally under the genus '' Xarifania''.Klausewitz, W. and I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1959 (1 Sept.) ef. 2616''Neue Röhrenaale von den Maldiven und Nikobaren (Pisces, Apodes, Heterocongridae).'' Senckenbergiana Biologica v. 40 (nos 3/4): 135-153. It is a marine,

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

eel which is known from the eastern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

, including the

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelago, archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of t ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, and Andaman Island. It is known to dwell at a maximum depth of , and inhabits silty sediments. Males can reach a maximum

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

of .

References

obscurus Taxa named by Wolfgang Klausewitz Fish described in 1959 {{Anguilliformes-stub