Post by allie on Dec 5, 2021 16:46:42 GMT
GIRLFISH (ENGRAULISULA species)
Appearance: First attested near Shangri-La in the early 2170s, girlfish are a clade of bony, oily forage fish thought to originate in the landless waters north of the Pacifica Archipelago. All known girlfish have silver skin and a pronounced underbite; the basal species has four large eyespots on each side of the the snout. Female girlfish (the vast majority by both number and volume) have chromatophoric lines, used extensively to attract mates during spawning season.
Behavior: In many ways a typical prey species, girlfish live primarily around open-ocean sargassum mats, but are known to range dozens of kilometers from weed rafts. This often brings them into coastal shallows, and girlfish have established themselves south of most of their natural predators.
What distinguishes girlfish from other forage fish is their unique reproductive strategy: in environments with numerous competitors, as many as 10% of female girlfish spawned are capable of gynogenesis. Using their chromatophores for mimicry, gynogenetic girlfish mate exclusively outside their species, creating vast schools of clones that crowd out the competitors before abruptly collapsing. In rare cases gynogenetic girlfish survive this school collapse, usually by returning to the open ocean, and become an all-female subspecies in their own right.
Unknown to natives prior to Recontact, girlfish are primarily eaten by newcomers. The Nippon Industrial State has taken particular interest in girlfish due to their presence in New Hawaiian waters; Musumé brand tinned girlfish has become an exotic import on Earth, and a deeply despised staple in Simushir.
Range: Northern hemisphere, but rapidly moving south
Habitat: Pelagic open ocean, especially around sargassum islands
Length: Up to 15 centimeters (males 20 centimeters)
Weight: 30-80 grams
Frequency: Common
Resource Value: High; girlfish can be harvested heavily without competing with natives or exhausting fisheries
Threat Level: None; girlfish are invasive and disrupt local ecologies
Physique: -4
Coordination: 0
Cognition: -3
Psyche: -4
Appearance: First attested near Shangri-La in the early 2170s, girlfish are a clade of bony, oily forage fish thought to originate in the landless waters north of the Pacifica Archipelago. All known girlfish have silver skin and a pronounced underbite; the basal species has four large eyespots on each side of the the snout. Female girlfish (the vast majority by both number and volume) have chromatophoric lines, used extensively to attract mates during spawning season.
Behavior: In many ways a typical prey species, girlfish live primarily around open-ocean sargassum mats, but are known to range dozens of kilometers from weed rafts. This often brings them into coastal shallows, and girlfish have established themselves south of most of their natural predators.
What distinguishes girlfish from other forage fish is their unique reproductive strategy: in environments with numerous competitors, as many as 10% of female girlfish spawned are capable of gynogenesis. Using their chromatophores for mimicry, gynogenetic girlfish mate exclusively outside their species, creating vast schools of clones that crowd out the competitors before abruptly collapsing. In rare cases gynogenetic girlfish survive this school collapse, usually by returning to the open ocean, and become an all-female subspecies in their own right.
Unknown to natives prior to Recontact, girlfish are primarily eaten by newcomers. The Nippon Industrial State has taken particular interest in girlfish due to their presence in New Hawaiian waters; Musumé brand tinned girlfish has become an exotic import on Earth, and a deeply despised staple in Simushir.
Range: Northern hemisphere, but rapidly moving south
Habitat: Pelagic open ocean, especially around sargassum islands
Length: Up to 15 centimeters (males 20 centimeters)
Weight: 30-80 grams
Frequency: Common
Resource Value: High; girlfish can be harvested heavily without competing with natives or exhausting fisheries
Threat Level: None; girlfish are invasive and disrupt local ecologies
Physique: -4
Coordination: 0
Cognition: -3
Psyche: -4