Nilps
Nilps are a small, translucent
fish, approximately half an inch in length. These fish travel in large
schools, moving from Yump to Yump. Between Yumps they are attacked by many
varieties of sea creatures, more than halving their numbers. This thins
their herds and provides natural selection. The school then reaches another
Yump, where they lay their eggs. Any Nilps that have hatched from eggs
laid by another school then joins this
Aqua-bops
Aqua-bops are tiny sub-aquatic
insects. They feed off of the algae that grows not only on the rocky sea
bed but also on stems and leaves of other under-water plants. If not for
the Bops, the algae would choke off much of the shallow water habitats.
Bops provide an excellent food source for smaller grazing fish.
Xanta
Xantas are medium sized
fish, about the size of a terrestrial plum. They are able to suck in water
to bloat their bodies. This can do several things. For one, it scares of
predators. And even if the larger fish attempts to swallow them whole,
as most predators will, the Xanta can often make itself too large to swallow
for most shallow water predators. The Xantas can even survive on dry land
for a short time by retaining water in hopes that the tide returns soon.
They lay their eggs in gravel patches, and during a tide the eggs hatch
into self sufficient hatchlings. Xantas are scavengers, eating small fish
and insects, such as Nilps and Aqua-bops, along with dead animals. They
also graze off of the copious algae.
Yoeriels
Yoeriels are A species
of gastropod that flourishes in the shallow waters, rich with algae. They
have a rounded shell that covers their body. The shell is a half-sphere,
covering their soft bodies. Each Yoeriel has seven muscular arms it uses
to move around. These arms can be withdrawn into their shell when a predator
approaches or they become stranded on dry land in the hot sun. Their mouths
are located on the bottom of each tentacle, and they feed by sucking in
mouthfuls of algae growth and ripping it from the larger colony of algae.
Their mouths are not able to eat away all the algae plants due to their
inability to tear at small bits of it. Since the Yoeriels spend most of
their time in one place, they have evolved so that they cannot devour a
complete body of algae. They cannot eat up the “roots” of the algae colony.
Any Yoeriels that manage to consume all of the algae nearby soon find that
it does not grow back quickly enough.
Jelmi
One of the shallow water
fish of Ralinius, the Jelmi is an elongated fish. The Jelmi is about two
to three feet long. In the case of receding waters, the Jelmi, with its
wide tail fin, is one of the fastest swimmers. Few species can prey off
of the living Jelmi due to their speed.Jelmi
however do provide food for scavengers, as many Jelmi are stranded on dry
land or in shallow tide-pools.
