Giant Tardus

## Description

The Giant Tardus (Magnus tardus belua), meaning great slow monster in Latin, is a species of microscopic animal in the genus Magnus. A Giant Tardus is large in comparison to other fish. They have large limbs that mimic legs, which are used for swimming and paddling through the waters they reside in. A Giant Tardus may need a large territory. Although a 1/3 of all its cells are Photocytes and it primarily feeds on the sunlight, it may still be overwhlemed by fast growers, such as Water Fleas, which reproduce very quickly, especially since they are made up of 3 cells, 2 for locomotion.

## Appearance

A Giant Tardus has many colours and different cell types. They are composed of 14 Photocytes, 10 Flagellocytes, 6 Keratinocytes, 5 Myocytes and 4 Stereocytes. Their colours such as orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink make them very bright and visible, although it is for aesthetic decorations. They have several different limbs, including a head, arms, legs, and a tail. Each serve their own purpose. The arms and legs provide the animal locomotion and thus can move around its environment. Its tail is for decoration, expect for its dual Flagellocytes, which give extra propulsion, making the animal faster. Its head and body both possess Keratinocytes, which protects it from attack. They also have Photocytes, mainly used for feeding on the light in their environment and territory. Giant Tarduses are large animals, with a total of 39 Cells, although this doesn't top the whopping 80 Cells that the Arbor Tree possesses. Although they are much larger than other simple lifeforms, they are also smart and possess 4 Stereocytes, each controlling the arms and legs.

## Behaviour

When a Giant Tardus senses the presence of food, one of its limbs will sense it and go towards it and this will also cause the other limbs to be dragged closer to the food source, which will allow the Giant Tardus to lean towards the food. Although they are also built for motion, if they are out of range of food or if there is no food remaining on the dish, it will choose a random way to swim towards and it will slowly, but surely, reach the borders and stand there, stuck until more food arrives and it is attracted. If it is in sight of food, it may force its Flagellocytes to smash into the Keratinocyte and get stuck between it, causing it to get stuck.

## Competition

Since Giant Tarduses feed on sunlight, they rarely compete for food, rather for territory. Although they may not be able to literally defend their territory, their massive size keeps the smaller creatures at bay. The only things that threaten and compete with the Giant Tardus would be these small invaders: Water Fleas and Square Swimmers. They are usually overwhelmed by these small critters due to the fact that they reproduce so fast that they can conquer a 1 millimetre dish in the span of less than 120 h. The speed of their conquest can lead to extinction of many species since they feed on nutrients like their competitors and the invaders are snacking on all their food, meaning they can't feed themselves. These gentle giants will get along with anything that is a good size for them but doesn't reproduce as fast, since they can't conquer territories because there are more cells for each individual. Since Water Fleas are 3 Cells, their very small size allows them to host a massive raid of over hundreds of individuals, which would be altogether multiplied by three and show how many cells there are.