Floating Pumpgill

The floating pumpgill split from its ancestor and moved out into the open ocean. Taking advantage of the free floating phytoplakton, the pumpgills adapted to a more open lifestyle. Their pumps have adapted into a swimbladder, allowing the floating pumpgills to drift on the currents without expending too much energy. They sustain themselves by floating on the current, catching the phytoplankton in their open mouths. They are not completely immobile, choosing mostly to conserve energy for fleeing predators and snapping up fleeing microswarmers. They breed in the relative safety of the twilight zone. Due to the loss of their ancestral foliage, once they have mated the female adheres the eggs to the male, who carry them around their abdomens until they are born. This mobile mating nest and drifting lifestyle has allowed them to spread all throughout the warm marine waters of Sagan 4.