Effulgent Scylarian

Splitting from its ancestor, the effulgent scylarian has moved to closer to the surface and now patrols the coasts of western Darwin. A serpentine predator, it has the food requirements of a creature just half its size. In order to meet this requirement, though, it feeds primarily on the yellow-belly nailfin, though it is known to attack majestic nailfins surfacing to breath and to go after large schools of shortbeak gilltail. It tends to use ambush tactics on its larger prey, first locating its prey via smell, taste, sight, and/or its sensory chin strips and then striking them from a blind spot such as from below and then allowing them to bleed to death. During the mating season the coloration on the males becomes extremely vibrant. While this is detrimental to their hunting skills, it greatly increases its chances of getting a mate. This season lasts 3-4 weeks, after which the females will give birth within a five-month period. These young will stay with their mother for about 2-3 weeks before going out on their own. For most of their lives they will then be solitary predators, though they may come together in order to take advantage of a rich feeding ground.