Moonlit Dancer

Descendants of that group of microswarmers most closely related to the minibean and its kin, the delicate moonlit dancers have begun to take the first few clumsy steps into the greater world of Sagan 4. Nocturnal by nature, they have stopped having to rely entirely on sunlight for nourishment and have instead taken to ingesting particles of food as well as smaller organisms, aided by tiny, sensitive barbels. By extension, oxygen-rich water is also taken in and passed through their bodies, whereupon it is then forced out through dorsal gill slits. Their flippers are larger and far more capable of pushing them through the water, while their eyes have also become more complex, a necessity for their nighttime habits.

Choosing darker places to inhabit, moonlit dancers are often found within sea caves or hidden between rocks and flora during the day. At night they will head out to feed, but on nights of the full moon, however, they will instead swarm en masse and begin their breeding dances. Females will flit about in place, releasing their eggs, while the males fertilize them. Once they are finished, they will return to their dens while the young eggs float about in the plankton. After roughly 72 hours, the eggs will hatch and the young larvae will float about within the currents until they are large enough to swim on their own, which also is the time they reach sexual maturity. Following this, they are capable of living up to 1–2 months, though many wind up being eaten long before then.