Creature Discussion

Britemac

This isn't about 'new things' but about creatures and thoughts on them. Like the Peeper for instance, did anyone else notice that it seems to communicate/coordinate movements with other Peepers around it, closes its eye in acceptance if you corner it, and has a hard beak for a 'mouth' meaning it likely eats things like corals?

Or did you notice that the boomerang has a lot of teeth in it's odd mouth meaning it likely eats smaller fish?

Or that the Airsac moves around by bending itself while jet streaming out fluids through the six nodules on itself, similarly to a squid

Or that the Rabbit Ray is avoided by Stalkers, they out right won't go near it, and it's bright colors indicate that it is poisonous, perhaps it feeds on the bright anemone things that are scattered around the area it lives in.

Stuff like that is what I mean for example. If any one else has any comments/observations I'd love to hear them

sayerulz

Gasopods are killing machines that wipe whole reefs of life for no reason. Almost everything is bioluminescent, perhaps the lights ward off some predator? Or do they attract some small creature that is universal prey?

Britemac

I think the Gasopods only freak out when you approach as yourself due to your smell, I've noticed that when in the seamoth, they don't give a rats arse about ya, which makes me think that 'mask' like appendage may actually be an advanced scent/taste based sensory organ similar to the Catfish's whiskers and due to your strange scent they react as though you're a predator and other things get caught in the crossfire. And the bioluminescence...perhaps it's less to affect the food chain, and more to signal to others of their own species that they are there, making things like mating and schooling much more easily done. In Fact the Mesmer predator seems to play off that bioluminescence with it's wing like appendages that it flashes and patterns.

Also, did you notice that the Hover Fish doesn't have fins but rather 6 scilia cups, and a completely neutral buoyancy, thus allowing it to 'hover' or float in place and move in such bizarre ways?

sayerulz

From what I have seen, gasopods will let off if anything gets near them.

Britemac

sayerulz wrote: »

From what I have seen, gasopods will let off if anything gets near them.

Approach one in a Sea Moth, also they don't let off due to peepers/airsacs/boomerangs. That aside....

Anyone notice how the Spade Fish seems like it may have taken a similar evolutionary route as the Flounder/Dab, with only one side having an eye, and a large mouth? Perhaps the ones we see swimming around are actually looking for potential mates, and normally they spend their time on the sea bed either waiting to ambush smaller fish, or munching on the red kelp

sayerulz

I have noticed that spadefish look like they might lead a bottom feeding lifestyle. Perhaps they lie buried in the sand with only their eye sticking out, and ambush small fish.

Seldkam

sayerulz wrote: »

I have noticed that spadefish look like they might lead a bottom feeding lifestyle. Perhaps they lie buried in the sand with only their eye sticking out, and ambush small fish.

There aren't really any other fish to ambush... I think the roles are reversed where the Sandshark is the one ambushing :P

Britemac

Seldkam wrote: »

sayerulz wrote: »

I have noticed that spadefish look like they might lead a bottom feeding lifestyle. Perhaps they lie buried in the sand with only their eye sticking out, and ambush small fish.

There aren't really any other fish to ambush... I think the roles are reversed where the Sandshark is the one ambushing :P

Perhaps the smaller fish that a spadefish might ambush isn't implemented yet, aka, the lava larva, which is TINY, or perhaps they could ambush Hole Fish or some other smaller aquatic life form. Based on physiology, if they were prayed upon by the sand shark, the eye on one side is actually an evolutionary hinderance than a positive adaptation and would never have developed to the point of being a primary sensory trait in the species.

sayerulz

Don't forget the schools of little fish, they could be what the spadefish might be after.

Seldkam

Britemac wrote: »

Seldkam wrote: »

sayerulz wrote: »

I have noticed that spadefish look like they might lead a bottom feeding lifestyle. Perhaps they lie buried in the sand with only their eye sticking out, and ambush small fish.

There aren't really any other fish to ambush... I think the roles are reversed where the Sandshark is the one ambushing :P

Perhaps the smaller fish that a spadefish might ambush isn't implemented yet, aka, the lava larva, which is TINY, or perhaps they could ambush Hole Fish or some other smaller aquatic life form. Based on physiology, if they were prayed upon by the sand shark, the eye on one side is actually an evolutionary hinderance than a positive adaptation and would never have developed to the point of being a primary sensory trait in the species.

Same thing could be said in the opposite way though-- that the Spadefish eat a species that is usually above them (they are usually in deep areas) so they evolve that eye to scan above them, not below, where the sandsharks evolved to take advantage of that

And the schools of "little" fish actually are just regular fish you can find in the shallows (but yea, maybe there are ones I'm missing)

sayerulz

Yea, I know that the schools are just smaller versions of the regular ones, but they still seem like likely prey for the spadefish.

Seldkam

sayerulz wrote: »

Yea, I know that the schools are just smaller versions of the regular ones, but they still seem like likely prey for the spadefish.

Didn't disagree :P just skeptical is all

Then again it doesn't matter a whole lot, I haven't heard of any of the smaller fish eating others ?

Britemac

Or perhaps the reason we see spade fish swimming around is due to a different biological imperative, the need to breed.

That said, I had a theory involving the Reapers, due to their massive size and 'latch on' style of eating things, perhaps they are actually the thing that eats Reef Backs, they only went over toward the Aurora due to it's massive size and then between the radiation and the free food (dead crew members floating in the water) they stayed over by it.

Seldkam

Britemac wrote: »

Or perhaps the reason we see spade fish swimming around is due to a different biological imperative, the need to breed.

That said, I had a theory involving the Reapers, due to their massive size and 'latch on' style of eating things, perhaps they are actually the thing that eats Reef Backs, they only went over toward the Aurora due to it's massive size and then between the radiation and the free food (dead crew members floating in the water) they stayed over by it.

I can't confirm but I THINK I've heard somewhere that reapers might eventually eat reefbacks... but I don't know. Then again it'd be interesting to see, since they'd have to chew them / rip them apart :P

Tierax

I have noticed spadefish spend their nights pressed against the seafloor, though they still don't have much of a survival instinct

Britemac

Tierax wrote: »

I have noticed spadefish spend their nights pressed against the seafloor, though they still don't have much of a survival instinct

I noticed that too, maybe their lack of bioluminescence ties into that and their predator is nocturnal so they hide from it on the seafloor

Tierax

I like that idea, and they are a deep colour, it makes them harder to spot from a distance in their deeper waters. maybe their primary predator is the bone shark? i would think the sand shark is more an aggressive filter feeder, eats lots of tiny things, but has the jaw and build to be territorial

Britemac

Tierax wrote: »

I like that idea, and they are a deep colour, it makes them harder to spot from a distance in their deeper waters. maybe their primary predator is the bone shark? i would think the sand shark is more an aggressive filter feeder, eats lots of tiny things, but has the jaw and build to be territorial

Very true, but the Sand shark has one thing the Bone Shark lacks (I think, never actually encountered a boneshark) and that's bioluminescence.

Also on that note, I must appologize for a faulty idea I had earlier, Reef Backs cannot possibly be the food source for Reapers, Reapers ignore large things as food. I noticed this when I encountered one while in my cyclops. So it's primary food source is something roughly sea moth sized or smaller, and probably a similar shape, of things I can think of that only leaves two creatures, Gasopods, and the (as of yet unencountered by myself) Qute Fish

Tierax

Or perhaps the reaper is a cautious hunter? It's smart enough to catch a seamoth and has even been known to slam them into the seabed, maybe the sheer size or the Cyclops intimidates it, have you tried the horn at them?

also of note about the horn, it attracts bonesharks... so bonesharks maybe hunt reefbacks?

Britemac

Tierax wrote: »

Or perhaps the reaper is a cautious hunter? It's smart enough to catch a seamoth and has even been known to slam them into the seabed, maybe the sheer size or the Cyclops intimidates it, have you tried the horn at them?

also of note about the horn, it attracts bonesharks... so bonesharks maybe hunt reefbacks?

That's a strong possibility, they both live in the same area and bone sharks would need little in the way of food to survive, since they have an exoskeleton of either bone or ultra thick coral/chitin like material, they could more or less do most of their swimming in the same way a kangaroo can hop, 99.99999999% tendon tension springing, making their bodies use almost no energy for normal form of locomotion.

Also, the fact that reapers grab and shake their prey leads me to lean more towards Gasopods being their normal prey, the violent shaking could disorient the Gasopod making it more difficult for it to gas, and the drag away to remove them from that gas cloud in the first place

Tierax

i think you're on to something there, possibly why the gasopods are as they are-hoping to blind and disorrient the reaper in turn? whatever it hunts, the reaper obviously needs to hold tight to it; and considering the speed of the reaper, maybe the gasopods arent a primary food source, but to the gasopods the reaper is it's primary predator?

sayerulz

Note, however, that the gasopods primarily live in water that seems to shallow for reapers to navigate well.

Tierax

true, hence why i think they are a secondary food source, a food of opportunity and not their primary. Although what would fit that bill i have no idea...

Britemac

Perhaps the repears are shallows creatures and roam about, however with the abundance of food due to the crash they are hanging around it for easy food that doesn't require much effort (IE dead ship personnel/ration drops), because even with the ship crashed into the sea floor, that area is still a 'shallow' zone, rather similar to the safe shallows areas, only devoid of most plant life (except a new one called a Jelly Ball or something like that, hopefully advanced cooking will come soon with that one) which could be cause due to the toxic radiation leaking into the water in that area

Tierax

or maybe they have been cut off from their typical hunting grounds by the crash, the aurora is on a fairly precarious ledge.

also of note, bladder fish have no mouth, maybe they are another filter style fish but with a mineral bent? when nutrients are low in their environment maybe they dig it up?

Britemac

Tierax wrote: »

or maybe they have been cut off from their typical hunting grounds by the crash, the aurora is on a fairly precarious ledge.

also of note, bladder fish have no mouth, maybe they are another filter style fish but with a mineral bent? when nutrients are low in their environment maybe they dig it up?

I take it you mean the Airsac, and while that is a possibility, I have an alternative, or additive to your point on that. If you notice you can extract distilled water from them, that shows they store desalinated water in themselves (perhaps in the sacks) maybe the sacks work as a thin membrane filter feeding system, catching particles against itself and ingesting them as water moves into the sack, thus cleaning and filtering the water, that they can expel to jet themselves around

Tierax

I like it i like it alot, every ecosystem has something at the bottom and airsacks seem a perfect fit, genuinely fun to watch behaviours in this game, also of note is it just me or do gasopods have like a butterflies mouth? it seems like they'd suckle like a cat fish or even from the acidic mushrooms themselves, storing that acid?

sayerulz

Tierax wrote: »

I like it i like it alot, every ecosystem has something at the bottom and airsacks seem a perfect fit, genuinely fun to watch behaviours in this game, also of note is it just me or do gasopods have like a butterflies mouth? it seems like they'd suckle like a cat fish or even from the acidic mushrooms themselves, storing that acid?

I find it more likely that they are filter feeders, and simply manufacture the toxin themselves. Note that the gasopod poison is green, while the mushrooms are purple.

Tierax

i figured that would be like how our stomache acids make everything orangey, like they simply store their waste to release when threatened.
also where they are found typically has those bubble corals, possibly they are sticking their mouths in them?
they don't seem like they'd be an outright filter feeder to me

Zixinus

I wonder what the Floaters are eating and what makes them so large. I also wonder whether they have any connection to Reapers, because their catching-mandibles are big enough to grab adult Floaters that support floating islands.

BIPPITY

Zixinus wrote: »

I wonder what the Floaters are eating and what makes them so large. I also wonder whether they have any connection to Reapers, because their catching-mandibles are big enough to grab adult Floaters that support floating islands.

that really doesn't support any kind of connection...