Kloxin

A sentient species from the Leosus Ring World.
Kloxins are unique for their capability to modify the shape of their body quickly and easily. Shapeshifting often takes between 20 seconds to 2 minutes depending on the scope of the changes. However, they must keep the same amount of mass after shapeshifting. Also, all of their organs must still be placed in the body.
As such, in their culture, the shape of ones body can reflect ones personality in a similar way as humans changing clothes. However, this capability also has many societal uses, such as escaping into very small areas, forming more arms to multitask with or espionage as they take the form of a different species.
To identify themselves under the federation, they often etch their FSID symbol on themselves or wear a badge with the symbol.

Basic Information

Genetics and Reproduction

However, despite the strange biology of kloxins, they reproduce in a similar manner as humans. After birth, they would need to grow to a larger size to reproduce. This process often takes about 25 years. Newborn kloxin will take up a body shape similar to that of the female over the time of her pregnancy.

Dietary Needs and Habits

To give them enough energy to make such rapid changes, they have a faster metamolism than most races, so they will need to eat more food. They have almost entirely lost the ability to digest plant matter, making them much more carnivorous.

Additional Information

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Kloxins also have a highly dense microbiome. Many kinds of bacterial cells also survive in a kloxin, syphoning energy from the host but giving the host more options in shapeshifting. The bacterial cells can sometimes be used by the body to make up for a defict in a specific type of cell. For example, if the host requires more nerve cells from a shapeshifting operation, it can recall some of the symbiotic bacteria to fill the same role. Most of these bacterial species would not survive in other hosts.