Clawed Fish

Some think the clawed fish are the joke of a terrifying ancient god or demon. It's fins end in sharp protrusions that look like claws. The claws excrete a poison similar to that of some jellyfish that acts rapidly on porpoises and humanoids equally well. It's most redeeming quality is that when the oily flesh is fermented properly with juniper berries it becomes an incredible helpful salve. The demon fish oil, as it is often called, acts as an antiseptic and promotes the healing of wounds and treatment of rashes.
Being a deep dwelling fish it is most often hunted by sea elves, mermen, or various fish and reptilian races. The fish have a migratory cycle as the year progresses. Only coming up from the depths in late summer where they feed on corals and plankton in the seaweed jungles.

Basic Information

Anatomy

About a foot and a half long when mature, they have 4 side fins and two dorsal ridge fins. Bulbous eyes and a ridge of pustule looking protrusions along their underside and between the dorsal fins.

Dietary Needs and Habits

While herbivores during maturity, the eggs are deposited on whales where they are parasitic shortly after hatching. They absorb and consume parts of it's blubber until about an inch in length. Most whales have sufficient blubber to survive this infestation with minimal pain akin to a lice infestation.

Biological Cycle

The clawed fins begin to develop at about 3 months of life and get larger until eventually making the fish immobile in late life. They have no natural predators, so they are either captured by sapient species or die and are consumed by scavenger species.

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

For Roleplaying games: The salve can be used as a superior healing potion when applied topically.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

The clawed fish seem to live primarily in the seas southward of the Island Continent of Bellflower. Current trade in these fish is done primarily with the Merfolk villages near the Heads of Ponn and the Kuo-Toa empire by the Towers Of Stone, the Matron Mysterium and The Great Architects.