Common names: garden-eel (English), anguila-jardín (Espanol), congrio (Espanol), varga (Espanol)
 
Heteroconger digueti (Pellegrin, 1923)


Cortez gardeneel,     Pale green garden-eel



Body very elongate, compressed; tail much longer than head and trunk; head short, snout very short; mouth very short (not reaching rear of eye), oblique, lower jaw only a little projecting; teeth pointed, curved, in narrow bands on jaws; teeth on front roof of mouth in 1-2 irregular longitudinal rows; top lip flanges continuous across front of snout and enclosing front (tubular) nostrils and a pair of pores above the nostrils; rear nostril a hole before eye; pectoral fins tiny (much smaller than pupil) skin flaps; tip of tail stiff, with obvious but small tail fin; dorsal and anal fins sometimes confluent with tail fin; numerous pores on lateral line, 1 for each vertebra.



Light brown with a few whitish patches on head and several light bars on lower half of body; gill opening in a dark spot; anterior pores of lateral line surrounded by unpigmented areas, but not by white-pigmented halos.


Size: attains at least 63 cm.

Habitat: occurs on clean sandy bottoms.

Depth: 2-25 m.

The southern Gulf of California to central Mexico; the Revillagigedo Islands