Ribbon Gilltail

Splitting from its ancestor, the globe gilltail, the ribbon gilltail moved out into Jujubee to exploit the amount of uneaten flora there. With the only other organism being the colonial filtersquid, a filter-feeder, the globe gilltail was free to take control of the niche of herbivore. The gilltails' ribbon-like shape allows the gilltails to slither through the large mats of colonialballs to tend to their young, which are now reared among the colonialballs for protection and a constant food source. The gilltails live almost their whole lives in and around the colonialballs and, as the tight huddles they form there aid in heat conservation, they no longer require the greater size or bulkiness of their ancestors as much. The eggs are laid on the colonialballs themselves, so the instant the young hatch they have a food source. The young are tended to with great care, with one of the parents staying with their brood until they grow old enough to venture off on their own into the neighboring colonialball mats. When they do, the juveniles will mate and start a new colony, and the process begins again. Of course, some juveniles stay behind, to ensure the survival of their birth colony.