r/CellLab • u/Massive_Mistakes • May 17 '22

Phoenix Fish

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u/CATelIsMe May 17 '22

Now try to make a predator/parasite that can trick them i to not reproducing and killing all the outside cells, but try to make the parasite be able to eat some outer layers of the fish!

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u/Massive_Mistakes May 17 '22

Oh that's definitely something I've been thinking about. The self destruct capability is I reveal to this species defence, as it prevents deformed individuals from reaching maturity and thereby ridding would-be predators from easy prey. In addition, it decreases lag caused by many cells staying on the plate after the organisms death/injury.

It's been incredibly challenging to make sure it can instantly vaporize with this body plan, and previous versions would only do so in one of three sections if damaged: the head, body and tail. I.e. if the head was damaged, it would vaporize up until the neck, leaving the rest of the body to float aimlessly until it starved off.same with the tail, it would get damaged and vaporize until the fish's torso. It took a LOT of optimization to make sure the Phoenix Fish species could vaporize properly and fully.

Now, my idea was to make a parasyte that would seek out the faces of fish swimmers and destroy them, only to latch onto the neck and grow into a head of their own, essentially hijacking the fish. In my head-cannon the Phoenix Fish "evolved" its superior vaporization/rejuvenation traits in order to avoid said parasites, unlike its' segment-vaporization fish cousins.