Pigocauda

## Pigocauda corallus

Latest Mutations: Better eyes with a transparent humor or rather than water = 4, Armour plates around head and jaw = 1, Two-chamber heart = 4

This relatively slow-going proto-fish mainly sticks near to the seafloor because this is where it's food is located. Unlike its hunting relatives, it's too slow to be able to hunt enough nutrient-rich food and instead feeds on soft corals. The reason for its lack of speed is the strange scales covering its tail from tip to base; it is composed of heavy but brittle scales that provide no protection but restrict movement of the critical tail. However, it has better stamina because of a two-chambered heart and better eyesight with an actual true eye (composed of a aqueous humor supporting a cornea and lens bending light to the retina) that helps it pick out the soft corals.

Status: NT

Habitat: Tropical Shallows, Subpolar Temperate Shallows, Polar Temperate Shallows, Tropical Upper Ocean, Subpolar Temperate Upper Ocean, Polar Temperate Upper Ocean

Niche: Predator (eats soft corals)

Size: 6cm (length)

Nutritional Worth: (86/10 X 6 =) 51.6NP

Food / Oxygen Requirement: 25NP / 41NP

Abilities: Permeable Skin. Bioluminescence. Short-Term Memory.

Perception: Decent binocular vision in front, can use electroreception up to ten metres away, can smell odours up to ten metres away.

Intelligence / Behaviour: Processes information and responds based on fixed behaviours. It knows to eat and avoid being harmed.

External Features: Streamlined fish-shape body with black pigmentation; it has oval pectoral ray-fins, a caudal fin beneath the tail and two spines on it's base. A brittle, heavy type of scale covers the tail from tip to base. Cycloid scales cover the thin skin layer, a line of electroreceptors on the flank and blue autogenic photophores dot the body. A mouth containing lots of razor-shaped teeth, olfactory receptors and forwards facing eyes - with aqueous humor supporting the cornea and lens directing light to the retina - make up the face.

Internal Features: Migmachordatix toxin is produced and secreted into spines. Three gill slits sit each side of head. A network of vascular blood vessels circulates red blood containing hemoglobin, pumped by a two-chambered heart. Muscles line either side of the body between the body wall and the cartilage membrane. The mouth is supported by a cartilage jaw. The gastrointestinal tract from the mouth has stomach a with digestive juices followed by intestines leading to the anus. A slightly bigger brain, with a memory lobe, encased in the head connects to two nerve cords which branch into network of nerves. A swim bladder lies in the centre of the body, near to the electric organ. It hosts male and female gonads. Protonephridia, connected to hemacoel, expels waste through pores.

## Pigocauda corallus

Locomotion Type: Anguillaform (+1 Stamina). Buoyancy Control.

Reproduction: Sexual, Ovuliparity (External Fertilisation). 1,000 eggs. Hermaphroditism

Castes/Phases: None.

Physical Stats: Speed = 2.3, Stamina = 4, Agility = 1, Attack = 3.5, Defence = 1.5 (cartilage over nerve cords), Bite Strength = 1, Strength = 2, Support = 1.5, Inflexibility = 1, UV Resistance = Moderate, Filtration = 1.

Systemic Stats: Osmoregulation = 1 (High, Quite High), Respiration = 2 (cutaneous respiration, ram ventilation), Digestion = 2 (meat), Circulation = 3, Excretion = 1, Immune System = 1 (physical barrier), Coordination = 1, Reflexes = 1.

External Features: Streamlined fish-shape (+1 Speed) body with black pigmentation (3NP, +Moderate UV Resistance) with oval pectoral ray-fins (5NP, +1 Agility, -0.2 Speed), caudal tail (2NP, +1 Speed) and two spines on base of tail (5NP, +1 Attack, -0.2 Speed). A brittle, heavy type of scale covers the tail from tip to base (5NP, -1.5 Speed). Cycloid scales cover (6NP, +1 Defence, +0.2 Speed) thin skin layer (3NP, +1 Immune System, +1 Respiration, +Permeable Skin), line of electroreceptors on flank (2NP, +2 Electroreception) and blue autogenic photophores (3NP, +Bioluminescence) dot the body. A mouth (+1 Filtration) containing lots of razor sharp teeth (2NP, +1.5 Attack, -0.5 Filtration), olfactory receptors (1NP, +1 Smell) and forwards facing eyes (4NP, +Sight) are on the face.

Internal Features: Migmachordatix toxin (4NP, +1 Attack) is produced and secreted into spines. Three gill slits each side of head (8NP, +1 Respiration). Network of vascular blood vessels (12NP, +2 Stamina, +2 Circulation) circulates and red blood contains hemoglobin, pumped by a two-chambered heart (5NP, +1 Stamina, +1 Circulation). Muscles on each side, attached to body wall (10NP, +1 Speed, +1 Strength, +0.5 Support) and cartilage vertebrae (6NP, +1 Support, +1 Strength, +1 Inflexibility, +0.5 Defence). The mouth is supported by a cartilage jaw (3NP, +1 Attack, +1 Bite Strength). Gastrointestinal tract from mouth has stomach with digestive juices (4NP, +1 Digestion) followed by intestines (4NP, +1 Digestion) leading to exit. Brain (6NP, +1 Coordination), with a memory lobe (4NP, +Short-Term Memory), encased in head connects to two nerve cords which branch into network of nerves (8NP, +1 Reflexes). Swim bladder (4NP, +Buoyancy Control) in middle near to the electric organ (4NP, +Active Electroreception). Male and female gonads (6NP, +Sexual Reproduction, +Hermaphroditism). Protonephridia (4NP, +1 Excretion, +1 Osmoregulation), connected to hemacoel, expels waste through pores.