Janhar

Species of Arkan Troznux bioship that is about 200m long on average.

The Janhar are large creatures that relied on 'filter' feeding a large amount of small organisms as its food source. There is no medium forcing the janhar to evolve actual filters though, and they are able to swallow as food enters its mouth. Its mouth is designed to open very wide to catch everything in a large area. However, a Janhar esophagus is quite small so it does not capture larger creatures. They only have a few weapons for self defence from predators (2 small laser weapons). They are also constantly watching nearby space for predators. One of their natural predators are the Pelalo, who can approach them from higher dimensions (see Subspatial Starship). 

Although the janhar have a relatively slow metabolism rate to conserve food, their sheer size means they still have a lot of energy, allowing for sentience. Despite this, they are not extremely intelligent for a creature of its size, the body having too limited energy. 

The Janhar required a propulsion method with extremely high energy efficiency. They have an extremely energy efficient way to convert mass to photons, making use of their microbiome which predominantly contains the microbes which are able to complete this process. This type of drive system is quite limited in the force it can output, but has a very high output for how little energy it uses. 

After the HF arrived in Arkan, many troznux species could obtain food quite easily from replicators. The Janhar are no exception, easily satisfying their small daily diet. This has led to their metabolism rate increasing and becoming more intelligent. Their laser weapons became more powerful and their speed has increased. Currently, they will take several weeks to digest food but before the HF contact it would take them slightly longer. Due to the relatively limited drive system, they could not get faster but their drive system became more inefficient. However, as the pelalo also have a lot of food, the Janhar no longer have to worry about them. Some Janhar have developed friendships with pelalo.

The Janhar have a lifespan of about 300 years due to their slow metabolism which has been extended with life extension technology. After growing for about 80 years they can reproduce and stop growing at about 100 years. Before the HF, they would often lay a large amount of eggs often in a hollow asteroid that is (hopefully) safe from predators. Some predators have learned to search these asteroids though, so there would usually be a number of janhar defending them. Parents have also evolved to be able to store eggs within their body in case the need arises.