Name: Puffers Description: Puffers are bloated animals with elastic like flesh. Their insides actively produce a light, toxic gas. On their back, fungi freely grows, which offers a sort of symbiotic relationship, the mushrooms are given a relatively safe place to grow, while the Puffers gain nutrients from the fungi. Younglings spend the first few days of their life grounded, and during this time the adults are much more aggressive and protective of their young. Once in the air, younglings spend their time doing what any kid would love to do. Floating around doing nothing, just growing up. They are still too small to fight back against any predators, leaving them very reliant on their adult protectors. A fully grown PufferA youngling, just able to produce enough gas to float. Behavior: Puffers are territorial, floating around mindlessly unless someone enters the cavern which they inhabit. Upon anyone nearing them, or especially their young, the Puffers will inhale before spewing a thick cloud of the toxic gasses that keep them afloat. This will ward off any who near them, hopefully, but also may leave the puffers grounded temporarily while they produce more gasses. This leaves them extremely vulnerable to other cave dwellers, which they're mostly able to avoid. Tamability: Puffers are tamable, if raised from youth, though they have no worthwhile produce, and if not in a darkened environment, fungi will not be able to grow on their back, resulting in malnutrition and an unfortunate death after not long. Where is it found?: They are found only in large, damp, open caverns where little light gets in, due to their reliance on fungi. Rarity: As long as all the criteria is met, Puffers can be very common in caves. Source of Nutrition: As stated before, Puffers gain all the nutrition they need from the fungi that grows on their back. Reproduction: Puffers lay one egg, rarely two, once every year. Leaving their populations decently thin. The young are often lost, due to their first few days grounded, and with limited space and their large size, there cannot be too many in one cavern. Size: A fully grown Puffer reaches sizes of up to 8 feet. Weight: Puffers are extremely light, averaging lower than 20 pounds in order for them to keep afloat. Due to this, their internals are nearly hollow, aside from the few vital organs they require to live. Lifespan: Puffers live upwards of 10 years. Abilities: Spews toxic gas for self defense. Floats in caves to avoid predators. Flaws: Very vulnerable at early youth and after spewing excess gasses. Very weak, thin flesh. If a hole is pricked, then their internal gasses will quickly leave their body, causing them to deflate and suffer a quick demise. Just a small poke from a needle can inevitably be fatal, as they leak very quickly. Other: Don't hurt the balloon boys, let them live their lives...
Hello @SomeTemplar I will be grading that floaty-boy app of yours. What would happen if someone or something were exposed to the gas? Does it cause breathing difficulties? Necrosis? That kind of thing. Pending.
Note: Fungi are also normally decomposers. If anything, the mushrooms would be a parasite to the puffers. Are the mushrooms eating something else on the puffer or something else.
Their gasses would cause a harsh difficulty to breathe and a feeling of great nausea of upwards of a day, the effect lessening slowly as time passes. Should one inhale a very great amount of the gas, it will become fatal, though this would be extremely rare to see occur in humans and other species of the like.
