Fiji - The Life of Ribbon Eels

Ribbon Eels (Rhinomuraena quaesita), it is also known as blue ribbon eels or leaf-nosed moray eels. It is a species of moray eel, however, its appearance looks quite different from other moray eels. It has long and thin body, its body length can grow up to 130 cm, it shapes like a ribbon when it swims. It also has large fan-shaped nostrils and chin barbels. They have quite a special look.

Ribbon eels are widely distributed in Indo-West Ocean, but it is pretty rare to see them due to their peculiar reproduction nature, I will explain about that later.
I have encountered them few times in different dive sites at Rainbow Reef, Fiji. They are such an incredible creature. Normally, you would only see their heads and anterior bodies protruding from crevices in sand or rubble habitats, they make themselves a burrow in sandy or rubble areas for living and hiding. It is really really rare to see them swimming out in the open. Some of them tend to live in the same hole for months or even years. Because of that, dive guides who are familiar with the dive sites around, know where do they live and can take you to see them. 

Ribbon eels are the only known species in the moray eel family that would change colour at different stages of the life cycle. It is really awesome! So they begin their life as a male, juveniles are in black body with bright yellow dorsal fin. When they become adult, the body colour would become bright blue and the snout and lower jaw would change to bright yellow, same colour of the dorsal fin.

When they grow about 85 cm, they would begin to develop female sex organs and become female. Yes, they change sex. At this stage, their body colour would change to golden yellow. This is the stage when the ribbon eels start mating and lay eggs before dying. Sadly, this stage would only last for a month, very short span of time.
This is the reason of the rare encounter of them since their reproduction period are really short which lead to low chance for reproduction. Even though the female stage only lasts for a month, ribbon eels can live up to 20 years. This whole life cycle is very fascinating. 

It is exquisitely rare to see a female ribbon eel, you must be really lucky if you see one. I am lucky enough to see few juvenile and male adult ribbon eels at Rainbow Reef which is really amazing. They are very beautiful creature with vivid body colour. They are same as other moray eels, constantly open and close their months which allow them to move water through their gills for respiration. 

If you want to see them, ask your dive guide, dive guides normally know where to find them. Remember to approach them slowly as they are pretty shy, particularly for the juvenile one, they would go in their borrow and hide if they feel threaten. They are such an incredible creature. I hope I have the luck to see the female once in my lifetime.