Bumblefish

According to all known laws of buoyancy, there is no way a bee should be able to swim. Its wings are too small to propel its body through the water. The bee, of course, flies anways, because bees don't care what people think is impossible.

— The beginning monologue of a popular children's movie

The bumblefish is a small pollinator living in Etharai's oceans. It can be found anywhere that marine flowers can be grown, travelling in swarms and creating waterproof hives filled with bubbles of air dragged down from the surface, allowing them to breathe. A bumblefish cannot stay outside of these hives for longer than a few hours before they start to drown, and even a small leak in its exterior can be disastrous to the colony living within.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Bumblefish, despite their name, are not actually fish. They are descended from hummingbees living on the coastlines, natural pollinators to the many plants living on the shores. The bumblefish, however, are the pollinators of the oceans, allowing for the growth and fertilisation of many oceanic plants, such as the palepetal flower or the ocean pomegranate. They have small bodies with watertight fur keeping the insides of their bodies warm. They have small legs to minimise drag but to still allow for movement. Small hairs on these legs allow them to attach themselves to the plants they are pollinating, preventing currents from dragging them away. Their wings, further back on their bodies than in their land-based kin, propel them fowards - but no longer allow for flight. Their eyes have developed a thicker shell surrounding them, protecting their vision but also making it slightly more blurry.

Genetics and Reproduction

In order to attract a mate, bumblefish will do a specialised mating dance. This dance is meant to show off a bumblefish's movement abilities, including the strength of their wings and their maneuverability. These dances can be incredibly elaborate and take a long time to complete, a time during which the mate they are attempting to attract can become disinterested at any point.

Agnes Placeholder by notahumanhand

Geographic Discribution

Oceans

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Hummingbee

Byproducts

Bumblefish produce marine honey as a source of food within their hives. However, they produce much more of this honey than their hive will ever actually need, as they are incredibly effective at making it. As a result, they are often farmed for their honey, a process that both benefits the bumblefish, with protection from predators and other threats to the hive, and the farmers, who receive the tasty material. Bumblefish also produce fishwax, which they use to create and reinforce their hive. This material is not farmed as often, as it is much more crucial to the hive.

Additional Traits

Language & Communication

Bumblefish communicate with one another through movements commonly referred to as "dancing". These dances can convey information about where to find a food source, parts of the hive that need to be repaired, or the presence of predators in a specific area. These dances can vary depending on the hive they are performed in, and some hives cannot understand the dancing of some others. This becomes more extreme the further away any two given hives are. Furthermore, the bumblefish seem to understand when another bumblefish does not understand their dancing, and will shift in response to a more interpretive charades-like method of communication that can more easily be understood.

Social Structure

Bumblefish hives are led by a queen, who is bred by being fed specific foods during gestation. These foods contain nutrients that allow the bumblefish to grow much larger than the rest of the hive, and begin to excrete pheremones that tell the other bumblefish her location. The queen is responsible for raising the children of the hive, as the rest of the bumblefish collect food or repair the hive. Bumblefish who go outside of the hive for any reason are known as swimmer bumblefish, and have much more powerful and slightly larger wings than the rest of the hive. Worker bumblefish are responsible for turning the food brought into the hive by the swimmer bumblefish into marine honey. Lastly, waxing bumblefish are responsible for maintaining, repairing, and reinforcing the physical structure of the hive, to ensure that it can safely house the rest of the bumblefish.