Striped Nailfin

The striped nailfin has split from its ancestor and has doubled in overall size. Having a streamlined body, it can move quite rapidly through the water when the need arises. Their tusks have shrunken to reduce drag in the water and their nails have nearly vanished altogether. Young striped nailfin are born in the protected shallows of the Raq Temperate Coast where they "frolic and play" until they are old and large enough to survive in the deeper waters of the Jujubee Ocean, and will stay with and are raised by the mother for several weeks before she must return back to the open sea. The young, when only a few weeks old, have small underdeveloped teeth and thus "filter-feed" on small, though non-microscopic organisms as well as soft-bodied bottom dwellers until their teeth fully develop, after which they will go after larger and tougher prey, and will form quick-swimming schools in order to be more efficient at hunting. Once they make their way into deeper waters once they reach 2 meters in length, they live relatively calm lives, swimming in pods of up to 30 individuals and feeding when the need arises. They are still capable of rapidly swimming away in order to escape predators, though it is rarely necessary and takes up a lot of energy. It is not uncommon to see some of the older members of the pods being covered in cleaner crastrum which actually aid them by nocking off various parasites that latch onto their hosts skin, though they do cause some drag while the striped nailfin swims. Rather "intelligent" for a nailfin, young members can usually be seen playing with symbioships, playfully nudging them between themselves for hours at a time for no other reason than to play with one another. Highly communicative, they can produce a wide range of sounds, ranging from quick chirps and squeaks from young individuals to the long mournful songs of the adults. They are quite adaptive when it comes to hunting, and will learn from past mistakes as well as by watching other individuals. They can move coordinately via signals from a pod leader, the alpha female, and can be seen doing this as early as six weeks of age. Finally, it appears that they may "mourn" their dead due to individuals will usually encircle a deceased pod member and sing their haunting melodies for hours at a time. They mate for life.