❃ Rising from a burrow in the reef with its mouth agape and nostrils flared into delicate flags, the ribbon eel is one of the most flamboyant fish in the ocean. Long, thin, and impossibly graceful, it ripples through the warm waters of the Indo-Pacific like a length of drifting ribbon, its slender body rarely thicker than a finger despite stretching well over a meter in length.

❃ What makes it truly remarkable is a lifelong transformation. Ribbon eels are born jet black with a thin yellow fin, then shift to brilliant electric blue and gold as they mature into males — and finally, larger individuals turn fully yellow as they change sex to become females. Every ribbon eel begins life as a male and may end it as a female, wearing a different color for each chapter of its life. For years the three color forms were mistaken for entirely separate species.

❃ For all its drama, the ribbon eel is a homebody. It spends most of its life anchored in a single crevice or burrow, only the head and neck exposed, swaying in the current as it waits to snatch passing shrimp and small fish. Rarely leaving its hole and notoriously difficult to keep in captivity, it remains a diver's favorite — a shy, shape-shifting jewel of the coral reef.