Hijerakomimus sagitta

• Head and body oval shaped;

 

• Cranium with thick, segmented, armor.

 

• Mandibular armor ventrally expanded.

 

• Anal II vestigial and not visible in live specimens; Anal I overdeveloped with large membrane; one dorsal fin like Anal I; fins positioned triangularly to the body, similar to an arrow's fletches.

 

• Gill tail thin with bony ridges on the dorsal and ventral sides.

 

• Gill fan atrophied with almost no ridges and caudal drop.

Monogamous species.   Hijerakomimus sagitta enters heat once a year during the fall.   An established couple will travel all year long together; the two specimens will swim together one next to the other; ramming the partner with their massive body; while this may seem like an aggressive behavior to the spectating diver, this is actually a way they have to crush skin parasites and clean the partner from them; their skin is rough and the friction between the two vbodies gets rid of most pests.   Mating can take a full day to complete due to their body mass and structure; the male's parapenis is of a shorter ratio with the body than in most other amphibians; meaning that finding a comfortable spot to fertilize the female becomes the hardest part of the mating process; the female's dorsal fin doen't help in this task.   The female will incubate her single egg for three months inside her ducts; making the enlarged and developed egg emerge from the duct with great pain only at birth.   The spawn will stay with its parents for years before leaving on its own.   Some groups will be composed of the two parents and up to four jouveniles all one year old from the other, all following the parents.

Ontogenesis is not particularly remarkable in the species; the youngs are born pretty much already developed.   Loss of natal aculeus at one year of age.   Growth of the bony ridges on the tail never stops during the animal's lifetime, resulting in old specimens having impressive ridges.

Epipelagic animals of the Nuwadi Ocean; these animals will mostly feed on floating forests' branches.   They prefer clear water with plenty of small forests and bushes to forage in.   Occasionaly they can submerge down as deep as the Bathypelagic zone, down to 2.000 m deep by adjusting their own internal pressure to compensate.

Omnivorous species.   Hijerakomimus sagitta will mstly forage foliage from surface level floating forests and bushes; once in a while, during season, these animals will go down as much as 2 km deep to forage on deep sea forests and carrion fallen down from the surface.   They will seldom feed on smaller amphibians too.

Long lived animals with a slow metabolic rate.   Sexual maturity comes at age ten; sexual sterility at around the second half of their second century of life, around one hundred sixty years old.   Periannial species, adapting their diet to seasonal availability.

Social animals.   Hijerakomimus sagitta can be seen wandering the ocean in couples accompanied by their offspring.   These animals will interact with eachother often during the day; most notably while resting, these animals wil often clean eachother and communicate through subtle movements of the tail.

Kept in public aquariums for show; while not dangerous to divers, this animal doesn't socialize with humans.

Game amphibian for most professional fishermen, this animal has been overfished until recently.   Some towns east of Neygambe consume its meat during a yearly festival.

Nuwadi and Irobian Ocean  

Excellent eyesight.

Affected by many skin parasites and Intestinal Tube Worms .   In a mutualistic relationship with small cleaner amphibians; they offer protection in exchange for n in-depth skin cleaning service.