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Alloy Snapper (Frango Offensionibus)

Alloy snappers are a predatory species that is found throughout the mineral sea. They can grow up to 7 meters long, and weigh up to 900 kilograms. They have a eel-like tail, 3 pairs of clawed flippers(3 claws per flipper), a narrow crocodilian head, and spines along their back. Because of their diet of anything smaller than them,(although they show a preference for silver and gold shiners), Alloy snappers tend to ingest large amounts of metals and minerals. Any minerals ingested are either passed through the digestive system or kept in the stomach to help break down tough material (similar to how chickens swallow small stones to aid in digestion). Metals, on the other hand, are sent to a special organ called a salacetallum (sal-a-set-al-um). The salacetallum contains acids that are strong enough to break down the chunks of metal into a near microscopic slush. That "slush is pumped to special areas near the head, flippers, and dorsal spines, where it is excreted and hardens to form the spines, claws, and teeth.

Despite their appearance and diet, alloy snappers are a playful and friendly species that lives in family groups, called armories, of 4-10 individuals. Both genders are present in the group, as well as young. When the group has more than 10 individuals, the youngest independent alloy snappers will leave to join another group or form their own. Alloy snappers usually only have one baby at a time, although twins have been observed. The young are born live and dependent on the protection of their armory. Adult alloy snappers are very protective of their young and the young of other snappers. There was even one case where a pod of snappers even adopted some young that were orphaned when their armory was killed by a poacher. Alloy snappers reproduce at any time of year, as long as food is plentiful.Young become independent at 3 years of age, although they don't reach sexual maturity until their 5th year of life. When the young are born, they lack the teeth, claws, and spines of the adults, and instead have baby teeth. These baby teeth fall out after 11/2 years, pushed out by the metal fangs that have now grown large enough to use.

Alloy snappers breath air, and prefer to stay near the surface, especially when they have young, which are not able to dive as deep or hold their breath for as long as the adults can. Adults are able to reach depths of up to a mile deep in search of prey, and can hold their breath for up to 1 hour. Alloy snappers have no predators as adults, but as young they are vulnerable to a variety of predators, especially sand divers, which will dive bomb young snappers from the sky in flocks until they are chased off by the adults or they kill it. Alloy snappers are a protected species on Illuria due to their limited range and the fact that they cannot survive outside of the mineral sea, even in captivity due to the costs of building a tank large enough to hold an entire pod comfortably and the amount of food that they would need.

The alloy snapper gets its name from the way metals are mixed together in the salacetallum. Because they are liquidized, the metals mix together to form an alloy called snappium. As snappium has proven to be impossible to recreate using traditional methods, it is currently believed that there is an unknown metal, element, or process that allows this alloy to form. This is currently impossible to test, due to the difficulty in capturing a live individual, as well as the relative rarity of shed teeth and claws, as snappium dissolves within 2 hours when dropped from the alloy snapper that it belonged to, lending further evidence to the theory that an unknown process or chemical holds the snappium together.

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