Swordtail

The swordtail split from its ancestor. It is a more active carnivore, primarily hunting Sailturts. Its eyes are oriented in 3 different directions so it can hunt in multiple directions. Its skin is darker to help it blend into the dark and dense Lur forests. It is so successful that it has driven the signaltail from its predatory niche, sometimes even hunting its ancestor if competiton arises.

With the onset of the more powerful sailmail, the sword tail needed to develop a new killing method. The old male tail-spike genes have been recycled for this new pourpose. Now males grow a permanent sword-like edge on their tail made from sharpened spikes; the edge is segemented to allow some flexibility. When attacking prey, males will try to slice at exposed flesh to inflict greveous wounds, using their strong back legs to climb up onto larger prey for a better damage point. If their swords don’t work, they can still use their sharp teeth and claws to bring down prey.

Individuals are semi-solitary, preferring to hunt alone but will work together to bring down larger prey. They use different biolumesent patterns for communication: all lights on = “I’m here!”; smallest light on = “I’m stalking”; cyclical flashing from largest to smallest = “I’m on the attack!”.

Individuals live for 15 years, migrating to the Sublyme Caves to mate and lay eggs in the cooler months, allowing young to enter the land at the start of the warmer months. Males have “fencing” contests for mating rights, using erratic light patterns to try and confuse opponents. Females lay hundreds of .5 cm wide eggs in the water; a couple will mate once in the season and separate. Eggs take a month to hatch into 5 cm long tadpoles. The tadpoles take 3 months to develop before leaving the water, slowly working up the food chain eating plankton then increasingly larger fauna. After leaving for land it takes another 5 months to fully mature.