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Golden Shiner (Shimmerus Aurum)

The golden shiner is one of the two remaining members of a once vast, numerous family. It is a bottom feeder, using its whiskers to hunt for the shellfish that make up its diet. Like its relative, the silver shiner, metals, primarily gold, find their way into its diet and are excreted on the skin to form an armor to protect it. Unlike the silver shiner, however, the gold covering of the golden shiner is much denser and far more effective, making it far to heavy to allow it to swim far. Instead, the golden shiner uses its pectoral fins to "walk" across the seafloor. Although the golden shiners gold originates from the golden algae (Zoophytorum Metallicum Aurum) that grow on the seabed, the golden shiner does not consume any of the algae. Instead, it preys upon the shellfish that live on the seafloor. Although the shellfish don't use very much of it, they contain lots of gold due to their diet of golden algae, which carpets the seafloor, ready for them to eat like living vacuum cleaners. Golden shiners live in primarily in wiregrass beds, where their armor is effective at protecting them from the razor sharp blades of wire grass that grow in abundance, and can occasionally be found in rust reefs as well, although golden shiners there have coats that are much weaker and duller due to the iron they consume rusting away, making them vulnerable.