Axebeak Gilltail

The axebeak gilltail replaced its ancestor the crested gilltail and moved up the Kenotai river system. With the intrusion of the longclaw urpoi into the Salt Marsh, the axebeak gilltail had to evolve quickly to defend themselves. The axebeak gilltail has doubled in size, and has assumed a more white-gray coloration on their upper body to blend in with the riverbed when seen from above and a lighter shade of blue on their bellies to blend in with the sky when seen from below. Their fins, which retain the twinkoral's pigment, allow them to blend in among the twinkoral as well. Their life cycle now moves through the whole river system: they are born in the mud of Kenotai Temperate River, where they remain until they are a month old. They then begin to journey down the river, arriving at the salt marsh as adults capable of defending themselves. It is then when they grow their distinctive axe-crests, which they use to bludgeon and slash at attacking longclaw urpois. Unlike their ancestor, both males and females share this crest. At the end of their life, they head upstream to breed and lay eggs in the river mud to hatch and begin the cycle once again.