Floating Saltballs

The floating saltballs have split from their ancestor. They are the descendants of saltballs that fell into high tides on the Huggs Island beaches. These individuals usually died but some evolved adaptations to a new life. Usually the floating saltballs will be attached to the top of or on the feathers of the filtershrooms. They have developed a thicker cell wall as a defence against the salty sea water and they thrive in the salty water.

There can be long periods of time when the balls will not be attached to anything. After heavy storms the balls will be washed off their filtershrooms. This causes the balls to reproduce quicker than normal. Any saltballs that touch each other will also stick together. Fast reproduction results in a floating raft of saltballs. They do this to reduce the impact on feeding from predators. When a predator starts feeding on the edge of the raft it soon realises that they taste awful and will stop eating thus reducing the damage to the raft. They will stay like this until the raft hits another filtershroom of something to stick to.

They have not been able to spread further because in the open ocean the rougher currents are too strong and the rafts break apart very easily and lone floating saltballs don’t last long.