Brellagon

The brellagon split from its ancestor, adapting its diet mainly to the more abundant food source on the deep sea, since those regions have not many large preys to hunt. This descendant of seadragolden evolved thin membranes between the mouth tentacles, which now can move backward, while the mouth works like a suction cup, fixing the creature to rocky surfaces, like the sea floor or rock walls on the abyss. When affixed, the creature will use the mouth to excrete undesired wastes.

When changing its diet, the brellagon developed a new hunting strategy. It will swim very fast, moving the long body in screw form, and so creating a whirlpool into the void between created by the movement. Then brellagon will attach to a surface and capture the microorganisms imprisoned in the vortex, closing the membrane with the long body still rotating inside for some minutes. The membrane will secrete some enzymes, digesting the captured food and absorbing it.

Like many other species on Anipedia, brellagons have three genders and these differ on the size. The carriers are the largest ones while males and females have about 0.4 m each. The external digestion leaves some smell traces where the carrier passes and these are followed by fertile brellagons. In fertile times, males and females will swim near to carriers into the vortex, being held into the chamber when the carrier is eating. Perceiving the presence of them, the carrier will release many gelatinous hormone cells while the smallest ones will do the same, releasing the sperm and egg cells and leaving from the chamber by the top orifice. Fertilized or no, the cells will adhere to the carrier’s hairs and young brellagons will born in some days. During this time, the chamber is kept closed and the offspring will grow and use the jailed microorganisms to eat.

Kept into the chamber, the offspring will stay near to the carrier’s tail and can reach around 1 cm long, being released when the carrier leaves the place to hunt. Those unfertilized cells are digested and absorbed by the carrier. Sometimes a mate can be imprisoned into the chamber and die inside, being a food source for the offspring while the slight parts of the corpse are slowly digested. In this way, brellagons assure that most of the offspring can survive while young.