Nibblecanth



Nibblecanths specialize in flora that encrust rocks. While mostly a herbivore, it will eat any fauna it finds on the encrustation, provided the fauna is small and vulnerable enough.

The nibblecanth has several feeding techniques, which it adapts to specific circumstances. These techniques vary by approach, such as what angle to swim at, and whether the nibblecanth pulls or scrapes at the food. Uniquely, each of its scraping teeth are actually two teeth partly fused together, which are only joined at the base. The tooth tips have less minerals and more collagen than the tooth bases, so they bend slightly. The teeth are comparable to the fibers of a toothbrush vigorously brushing away debris.

The non-specialized teeth are not used for chomping on scuttlers. They do not appear to serve any purpose, and are instead remnants of the more carnivorous physiology of the wolley, its great-ancestor.

Nibblecanths are able to change color as well as its ancestor. The individual depicted has colors more true to those it would take in its natural environment of grey, rustmold- and basilliphyta-covered rocks.

Like their ancestor, they attract mates by flashing the bioluminescent dots on their sides. These spots usually do not glow, for it would disrupt their camouflage and thus make them conspicuous to predators. Their frog-like eggs are covered in a special membrane that will mimic the color of whatever color they are sitting by. To be specific, the membrane is a special membrane because it consists of a thin epidermis-like layer with collections of pigments. It is, in essence, the embryo's own outer skin, held away from the rest of the body by egg-gelatin.

Outside that epidermis-like layer is the transparent jelly layer, which magnifies any light passing through onto the secondary layer. The magnification allows the secondary layer to more precisely sense the color of the surrounding objects, and thus imitate them. The secondary layer has a complicated network of nerves that is partly connected to the developing nibblecanth's dermis. The nerves of the network control the distribution of pigments in their pockets automatically. As the nibblecanth grows in the egg, the epidermis-like membrane fuses with the nibblecanth's dermis, eventually being reassembled into a proper epidermis. Before that happens, the young nibblecanth's skin looks wrinkly, and the young nibblecanth is inclined to seek shelter in dark places or in similarly wrinkly objects.

Young nibblecanths do not know their wrinkly look makes them stand out from differently-textured surfaces. Rather, those that kept to non-wrinkly objects or swam in the open were more likely to be eaten by predators. While they have few predators, beyond blending in they have no defenses. Thus, once caught, being eaten is quite likely. Predators of the young include carnivorous scuttlers; (which use sight) predators of the adults include slender scylarians (which can sense nibblecanths with their whiskers).

Nibblecanths have good eyesight. They can see several colors in a spectrum ranging from purple to green. (as illustrated in the depicted color of its ancestor, the cromocanth) They can also see many gradients of light and dark and distinguish objects from a distance. Their sense of smell is fairly well-developed, and helps them locate redmosses. (which are otherwise hard to find, since they cannot see red)

Genetic diseases include spectacula calvaria, in which the inner part of the skull overgrows the orbit (eye-hole), thus causing internal pressure on the eye. Fortunately for the nibblecanth, they do not require keen eyesight to survive. Furthermore, if one eye is disadvantaged by spectacula calvaria, they have several other "backup eyes".