A beautiful adult male ribbon eel in open water, looking for a new home! How do we know it’s a male? Easy! Ribbon eels are a very singular marine species. All individuals start off their lives as males. They are born black with a yellow dorsal fin. The black turns to blue when they become mature males. And finally, towards the end of their lives, when they reach a size of about 1 meter long, they turn completely yellow and transform into females. At that point, they will only live long enough to lay their eggs, and then they die. This is why they are called protandric, a type of life cycle they only share with clownfish. Also, seeing them in open water is pretty rare, as they prefer to live in a cozy hole, with their head sticking out, waiting for a pray to be foolish enough to get too close.
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