Eli's skin turned brown and black.

But within a couple of days in fresh water,Eli's skin becomes pigmented a brownish-black,now looking more like that of an adult eel.You might notice that we haven't mentioned anything about Eli's gender yet.That's because this is only determined once an eel enters fresh water,though nobody is sure exactly how that happens.Most of the eels that stay in the estuaries and brackish water become males,while those that go upstream become females,growing up to two to three times bigger than their future mates.In this case,it turns out that Eli was actually short for Elaine.