Coral-Horned Tralivous Nexcus

## ***Basic Information:***

***Pronunciation:*** [Coral Horned Tr-ah-v-us N-eh-x-cuss]

***Common Name:*** Coral-Horned Nexcus

***Conservation Status:*** Endangered

***Date of Discovery:*** 2/31/10

***Gender:*** Male and Female

***Temperament:*** Aggressive

***Diet:*** Mainly fish but in rare cases birds

***Weight:*** 3 tons

***Height:*** Head to tail- 35 ft

## ***Description:***

These massive beasts use camouflage to their advantage due to the reason that they don't have much endurance and are fairly slow. On the top of its head is a false **Tralivous Coral** surrounded by bumps. The back of the Coral-horned Nexcus mimics the the sand of the ocean floor. On its tail are many tints and shades of blue spikes. The females have a false Weeping Tralivous due to reproduction and feeding reasons.

## ***Behavior:***

They are solitary creatures, only visiting each other during breeding season. The males eat only the Grafico fish that swim towards the coast of Island Reroni to lay their eggs. There, the male Coral-horned Nexcus wait for the Grafico fish to get two feet away from their head piece, where their jaw is, and they swiftly rise their heads up and chomp up the Grafico fish and their eggs. The female's head piece is in front of their faces making it easier to catch prey. The downfall is that the females are less sneaky than the males and tend to lose their prey due to kicking up sand and loudly digging themselves a hole to blend in.

## ***Reproduction:***

Instead of brawling it out, the males with the most shades and tints of blue are chosen by females. The male's reproductive organ is the false coral on its head. A female of the Coral-horned Nexus dips her head low after positioning herself two inches above the male. The coral on her head acts as her reproductive organ while the large bump on her head is her ovary. Both of them interlock their false coral as they swim to the deepest part of the ocean to lay their eggs. Only one of the coral "arms" stick up on the female's head piece. This is where her one to three eggs will enter the outside world through.

The children, known as Nexies, have no reproductive organs or sandy backs. They instead are the color of Tralivous coral. To hide from predators, they will attach themselves to the female's head piece and gulp up any tiny fish that swim past. Somewhere from three to six months they gain their reproductive organs and sandy backs. They then leave their mother and swim off to repeat the cycle in another six months.

## ***Ecology:***

### ***Where in the food pyramid?***

The Coral-Horned Nexcus is an apex predator. It is a heterotroph, and cannot make its own food.

### ***Diet:***

The males primarily prey on the Grafico fish who lay eggs in the Tralivous Coral. Females, however, will take what they can get.

### ***Predators:***

Only the Nexies have natural predators besides that, their predators are sentient beings who hunt them for sport or in fear.

## ***History and Mythology:***

Being over fished, the Coral-Horned Nexcus' Conversation Status became critical. Due to this, it became illegal to hunt and the people of the island Reroni made it their state animal.