Stonmir

Stonmir is a fish found living in the bottom of the lava lakes of Branul. They live and hide from predators in tiny huts they build with rocks, called Thofass.

Basic Information

Anatomy

These Lapez have a blue body, with dark blue scales covering their body and darker fins. They have many strong but small teeth inside the mouth that they use to crush food and others. Outside their mouths, they have some wide spines that look similar to teeth but that have a different structure called Dents, which are darker than the main body. It is believed that the stonmir jaw is strong enough to easily break bones. They do not have eyes, as they do not use them to move around, althought they still have the eye sockets on their skulls and thus you can see on their heads two places where their skin and scales lower a bit, covering the eye socket.
Their dorsal fin goes from the back of their head to the start of their tail and is used to steer and balance their bodies. The caudal fin and the pectoral fins are used to propel themselves while swimming or to crawl on the lake floor. The anal fin is used to anchor themselves to the lake floor while they are searching for food so they do not float away with the currents. Their two pelvic fins are used to feel the lake floor while searching for food.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Because of their lack of eyes, they do not have sight. In its place, they relay on echolocation and touch. By producing a sound with their mouth, they can "see" throught echolocation up to 20m (65ft), and their pelvic fin have delevoped a high sense of touch that they use to touch the lake floor and search for food or other thinngs they might be searching.

Genetics and Reproduction

Stonmir females lay eggs twice a year, to compensate their short lifespan, and they lay 20 to 30 eggs from which barely 5 or so will survive and grow to be an adult able to reproduce. Between a hatch and the next one, a minimum of 6 months must pass, but if the time is longer than 8 months, the female will start laying eggs whether she wants or not. After the eggs are laid, the male has a couple of hours to fertilize them.
These eggs are kept inside a Thofass, trying to hide them from predators, and because sometimes the female lays them before the Thofass is fully finished (when more than 8 months have past), the females sometimes move the eggs around inside their mouths, after grabbing them with the help of the Dents. They also move the eggs this way if the Thofass is under attack.

Growth Rate & Stages

• Egg: this stage lasts for a week.
• Larval: when they hatch, part of the yolk of the egg is still attached to their bodies and will feed from this. They are starting to learn how to swim and to use their echolocation. This usually lasts for two or three days.
• Fry: when the yolk deattaches from them, they start feeding themselves by crawling around the lake floor. They still do not relay on echolocation and tend to crawl in places where they can easily be hidden from predators. This lasts two weeks.
• Adult: They finally use echolocation to move around and are not limitated to the lake floor. They are also ready to mate.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Their diet is based on some crustacean-like creatures that live in the lakes floors that are about 5cm (1.9 in) long. To find them, the stonmir explores the lake floor with their pelvic fins to feel where a group of these creatures are found. When they are found, they raise part of the floor by biting it with the Dents; after that, with the mouth closed, they will exhale the magma and dirt out of their mouth, making it pass throught the Dents, which will not allow pass to the creatures and rocks of the same size or bigger than the creatures.
This process make them sometimes eat dirt or stones from the lake floor, but these usually help the stonmir on the digestive unless its a big quantity of them or is too big, which then the stonmir would throw up all content on their mouth.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Stonmir are creatures that live in couples, but do not necessarily have the same couple all their lifes. Before each hatch, a couple will go live in a Thofass and will live together until the next one, when, unless the male manages to keep the female, they will part ways to another couple.
The females are courted by the males, who will build a Thofass for the both of them and the eggs that the female will lay. The males can be divided in two groups:

• Builders: these are the males that build Thofass for the females.
• Affairs: these males, rather than building a Thofass, try to find females that laid eggs and their males are not near enough to fertilize the eggs.

Althought the males are divided into these two groups, the usual is that a male has one female where he was a builder and then he may find some females to be affairs with. Females stay with the builders untill next hatch if the male is a builder one.

Lifespan

2 years

Average Height

7 cm (2,7 in)

Average Weight

70 g (2.5 oz)

Average Length

15 cm (5.9 in)

Geographic Distribution

• Axysk lake
• Knikis source
• Lake of Kugrum

by Catoblepon

Thofass

The Thofass is a formation of rocks, the size of a shoes box, that are found in the bottom of lava lakes and are build by male stonmir, usually in dense places with Firava or other bigger rocks, to hid from predators. They are the home to a couple of stonmir and usually the eggs and larval they had. The males build the Thofass by moving around stones, be it rolling them or carrying them in their mouth. When the female is about to lay eggs, the male will make the floor of the Thofass deeper so the eggs can be put down there without having them rolling out of the Thofass.

Zothis by Catoblepon

placeholder of a future draw of a Thofass