Blacktip Probefish

Artwork

Weight:
30lbs

The **Blacktip Probefish** (*Bracchifacius negrapinna*) is an original species created and designed by TheAgent41. The Blacktip Probefish inhabits the *The Hole* universe, an original universe created by TheAgent41.

## Appearance and Anatomy

The blacktip probefish is a medium-sized pinnapode and the largest known probefish species at four and a half feet in length with its trunk outstretched. Gray in color, its epidermis is smooth and rubbery like that of an Earth dolphin. Its peanut-shaped body weighs approximately 30 pounds when fully grown, although eyewitness reports of individuals as long as six feet exist.

Blacktip probefish, like all members of its taxonomic family, possess long teardrop-shaped pectoral flippers, which they use to steer themselves while swimming. This specific species gets its name due to the black edges of its pectoral flippers. For forward momentum, they rely on muscular siphons that inhale and expel water with enough force to propel them forward.

The most prominent anatomical feature of the probefish, a feature unique to its genus, is its trademark trunk. This trunk is extremely flexible and is tipped with the probefish's circular toothless mouth. Situated along the mouth's circumference are six fleshy, finger-like appendages. These fingers are highly sensitive and act as the probefish's primary sensory organs, even more so than its heat pits.

## Ecology

### Behavior and Intelligence

Probefish are largely slow and lethargic creatures that prefer to slowly drift along the ocean floor, using as little energy on jet propulsion as possible. Generally, they will only make good use of their siphons when threatened, in which case they will dart away for surprising speed for a creature of its size. Probefish are benthic creatures, dwelling on the floor of the ocean abyss. They are generally found at depths of up to 7,000 feet, over a mile below Achlys's sea level. At this point in the ocean, no sunlight reaches the surface. While a lack of light would normally be a sensory issue for any sight-dependent creatures, an Achlysian creature would be able to thrive thanks to its heat-based navigation.

That being said, the blacktip probefish, like other members of its genus, has adapted in such a way that its thermal pits have atrophied, giving it poor "eyesight". This is because it navigates mainly using its arm-like trunk and the highly sensitive fingers on its tip. The fingers on the probefish's trunk are essentially the ultimate deep-sea sensory organs; they are receptive to touch, can detect slight chemical differences in the surrounding water, and can detect electrical currents given off by moving creatures.

### Diet

The blacktip probefish is a deposit feeder. It spends nearly all of its waking time swimming near the seafloor, using its trunk to endlessly probe the seafloor like a human feeling his or her way around a dark room. It mainly searches for small bottom-dwelling organisms in the sandy seafloor and detritus from the shallower waters above. Probefish have often been found along with hundreds of other organisms at the decaying corpses of large organisms from the surface, such as giant starfloats and sea vortices.

### Reproduction

The blacktip probefish reproduces much like any other siphodorsid. When two probefish meet each other, they will almost certainly mate with few questions asked, a necessity due to the lack of readily available mates. During the mating process, probefish will connect their trunks together in a manner that superficially resembles "kissing." Once a watertight seal has been formed, probefish will exchange sperm with one another, thereby impregnating each individual.

Probefish are oviparous. When they are ready to lay their eggs, they will use their trunks to dig a small hole in the silt on the ocean floor where they will bury their eggs. Within a few days, the eggs will hatch and the babies will use their trunks to dig themselves out of the mud.

## Trivia

* The scientific name *Bracchifacius negrapinna* loosely translates from Latin as "black-finned arm face".

## Gallery

Artwork