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. The family includes over 220 species in 32 genera.
The superorder Elopomorpha contains a variety of types of fishes that range from typical silvery-colored species, such as the tarpons and ladyfishes of the Elopiformes and the bonefishes of the Albuliformes, to the long and slender, smooth-bodied eels of the Anguilliformes. The one characteristic uniting this group of fishes is they all have leptocephalus larvae, which are unique to the Elopomorpha. No other fishes have this type of larvae.
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 and are usually predators.
Bathyuroconger is a genus of eels in the family Congridae. It currently contains the following species:
Congrhynchus talabonoides is a species of eel in the family Congridae. It is the only member of the genus Congrhynchus. It is only found in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines at depths of 247–393 meters.
The garden eels are the subfamily Heterocongrinae in the conger eel family Congridae. The majority of the 36 known species of garden eels live in the Indo-Pacific, but can be found in warm ocean water worldwide. These small eels live in burrows on the sea floor and get their name from the behavior of poking their heads from their burrows while most of their bodies remain hidden. Since they tend to live in groups, the many eel heads "growing" from the sea floor resemble the plants in a garden. They vary in color and size depending on the species. The largest species reaches about 120 cm (47 in) in length, but most species do not surpass 60 cm (24 in). Garden eel colonies can grow as large as one acre in surface area and number up to several thousand individuals.
Parabathymyrus is a genus of eels in the family Congridae.
Rhynchoconger is a genus of eels in the family Congridae.
Muraenichthys is a genus of eels in the snake eel family Ophichthidae.
The Gilbert's garden eel, also known as the Gilbert's conger and the sharpnose conger, is an eel in the family Congridae. It was described by James Douglas Ogilby in 1898, originally under the genus Congrellus. It is a tropical, marine eel which is known from the eastern central and southeastern Pacific Ocean, including the Gulf of California, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Colombia. It is a benthic and nocturnal species, and inhabits sand flats in reefs, bays and coves at a depth range of 1–100 metres. It burrows into sand during the day and emerges to forage during the night. Males can reach a maximum total length of 27 centimetres.
Chiloconger philippinensis is an eel in the family Congridae. It was described by David G. Smith and Emma Stanislavovna Karmovskaya in 2003. It is a tropical, marine eel which is known from the Philippines, in the western central Pacific Ocean. It dwells at a depth range of 186–230 metres. Females can reach a total length of 19 centimetres.
The Toothy conger is an eel in the family Congridae. It was described by Henry Weed Fowler in 1934, originally under the genus Uranoconger. It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the western Indian and southwestern Pacific Ocean, including the Philippines and Indonesia. It is known to dwell at a depth of 886 metres. Males can reach a maximum total length of 4.3 centimetres.
The Blackedge conger is an eel in the family Congridae. It was described by David Starr Jordan and John Otterbein Snyder in 1901, originally under the genus Leptocephalus. It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from Japan to the Philippines, in the western Pacific Ocean. It dwells at a depth range of 150–450 metres (490–1,480 ft). Males can reach a maximum total length of 54 centimetres.
The large-toothed conger is an eel belonging to the family Congridae. It was described by Léon Vaillant in 1888, originally as a species of the genus Uroconger.
Congriscus maldivensis is an eel in the family Congridae. It was described by John Roxborough Norman in 1939, originally under the genus Conger. It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the Indo-Western Pacific, including Australia, Fiji, Madagascar, Maldives, New Caledonia, the Philippines, Vanuatu, and Wallis and Futuna. It dwells at a depth range of 354–820 metres (1,161–2,690 ft). It can reach a maximum standard length of 35.2 centimetres (13.9 in).
Gnathophis grahami, or Graham's conger, is an eel in the family Congridae. It was described by Emma Stanislavovna Karmovskaya and John Richard Paxton in 2000. It is a subtropical, marine eel which is known from New South Wales, Australia, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It dwells at a depth range of 50–350 metres.
Paruroconger is a monospecific genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Congrinae, the conger eels, in the family Congridae, which also includes the[[garden eel]s. The only species in the genus is Paruroconger drachi, an eel which is known only from the holotype collected in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean off Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo.
The black garden eel is an eel in the family Congridae. It was described by James Erwin Böhlke and John Ernest Randall in 1981. It is a tropical, nonmigratory marine eel which is known from the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean, including Ambon (Indonesia), Negros (Philippines), and the Andaman Islands (India). It dwells at a depth range of 1–35 m. It leads a benthic lifestyle, and inhabits sand or mud, living solitary or in colonies. Males can reach a maximum total length of 53.7 cm (21.1 in).
Bathymyrinae is a subfamily of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Congridae, which includes the conger and garden eels. The eels of this subfamily are most diverse in the Indo-Pacific region but are also found in both the Eastern and Western Atlantic Oceans.
Congroidei is a suborder of ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Anguilliformes, the eels. These eels are mostly marine, although a few species of snake eel will enter freshwater, and they are found in tropical and tempareate waters throughout the world.
