>>5396076The Flounder Feeder has no means of identifying what is and is not food, only to vomit stones when they are ingested. The Flounder Feeder’s primary source of food is the lowly Lump Grazer. The Lump Grazer is half the size of the Flounder Feeder and is slightly more complex. A Lump Grazer has a mouth, a stomach, and unlike the Flounder Feeder, doesn’t dare to swim with the tide. Instead, it uses a very weak muscle to grip the stone below and push itself forward, trembling until it can find its source of food. The humble Growth Lump, a tiny wad of unicellular life that have clumped into a single mass to more efficiently photosynthesize the very, very little sunlight that gets through the ice. Luckily for the Lump Grazer, these Growth Lumps are abundant and tend to cluster together.
Unluckily for the Lump Grazer, its trembling means of movement alert the sensitive nerves of the Flounder Feeder, leading to its consumption. The Flounder Feeder isn’t always able to flop in the right direction and very frequently has false alarms but occasionally, the Flounder Feeder is able to catch a Lump Grazer and digest it. One Lump Grazer can sustain a Flounder Feeder for almost half of a local day, or three Terran days. The Flounder Feeder has no way to store surplus nutrients or recognize regular feeding grounds. It is blind, mindless, and driven completely by impulse. For now, this is enough to hunt its prey.
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