Thermal Carp
Thermal carp are a fish found across Hell, widespread throughout many regions. They are profoundly important to local ecosystems, though have had a massive impact on a number of other planets where their populations have spread.
These fish are one of the only creatures to comfortably live in both flowing lava and water. As thermophiles, they thrive in extremely hot environments. While native to lava planet Hell, they have been introduced into ecosystems on several other planets, including the steaming calderas of Cilvarth and the boiling oceans of Otonan.
Taxonomy
Thermal carp are in the family Cyprinidae, alongside more carps, and other fish.
Anatomy
Left unchecked thermal carp will grow several metres in length, weighing several hundred pounds. A significant portion of this weight comes from their thick scales. These protect them from extreme temperatures. The scales have specialised cells that help them store thermal energy in case of a sudden temperature shift.
Upon this sudden shift in temperature, the scales will release this thermal energy to preserve the internal body temperature for a short while. The body temperature will slowly adjust to the ambient temperature in the environment, which enables them to thrive in in such wildly different climates.
Experiencing too many sudden temperature shifts will overwhelm the fish and kill it.
The fins of a thermal carp are lined with a mildly toxic oil. Secreted through large sebaceous glands under each fin, the oil helps the fish glide through thick magma with less effort. This oil has a sheen which accentuates the stunningly bright yellow, green, and blue of the fins.
Diet
Thermal carp are omnivores with a varied diet. They typically feed on small invertebrates and mussels found on lakebeds. This is supplemented with algae and seagrasses, often floating in small clumps which can be swallowed whole.
Benthic feeders, they use their large head to shovel through soft soil at the bottom of these lakes. They lack oral teeth, relying on pharyngeal teeth farther back in the throat to crush food.
Thermal carp will suck up tiny clams, crabs, and other hard-shelled organisms, to crush them with their teeth. Anything that can't be digested is quickly regurgitated.
Occasionally, a small parasite is ingested while consuming clams. They can't be crushed by the carp's teeth, and can survive in the digestive system, feeding off whatever the fish consumes.
Reproduction & Growth
Female carp will lay anywhere around five hundred thousand eggs in a single spawn, several times in a single season. A single fish can produce up to six million eggs in a single year, as a response to over-predation. Their eggs are easy food for many predators, so the carp lay more eggs to combat this.
Domestic carp are forced to lay more than this, as eggs are profitable. Hypophysation, a specialied breeding technique, encourages the fish to lay more eggs. A pituitary gland extract, taken from the same species, is injected into the carp, which induces the fish to breed.
Thermal carp struggle to breed in captivity without hypophysation, as the carp require specific environmental factors that are difficult to reproduce consistently in captivity. These carp migrate to slow-moving rivers to lay eggs, which stick to the riverbed or on grasses and algaes.
Habitat
These hardy fish continue to out-compete native animals for food. Our own calderan carp have already become locally extinct, as they cannot compete with these lava beasts.
Thermal carp are a cosmopolitan species in their native planet, most common around the Atigeo Sea. In almost every major body of water on Hell, thermal carp can be found, either native or introduced. They are comfortable in both fast and slow-flowing lava, and ranging viscosities.
On Otonan thermal carp are also found worldwide. The boiling oceans make for a perfect habitat for these fish, and they have consequently thrived. Thermal carp can also be found on Cilvarth, in the calderas of the Middle Mountains. With such isolated populations, they cling to life. They are also found in Razhea Capita's Underworld, surviving only around small pockets of water close to the Furnace, where the heat sears other life.
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Looks great, you might not have had fun writing it but they are very interesting!
thank you! I'll add more information in the future to make it a better article :D