Cloyster (Shellder)
Armis inalgesco
Overview
Every species needs some way to defend against predation. Some are simply too large or formidable in battle for any native predator to challenge them. Venom or foul taste can deter all but a select few hunters. Others can run away or avoid being seen at all. One approach works on a population level rather than an individual one: have so many babies that it is unlikely they all get eaten. The last is a very common approach for surviving the larval stage in the ocean.
Cloyster have a different strategy: be so hard to damage that nothing bothers. This has its risks as any motile species that can break their armor see them as a free meal. Shellder have their share of predators. Cloyster, on the other hand, have perfected the art of invulnerability. Almost nothing can outright break the armor of a cloyster. All but the strongest of gyarados will eventually admit defeat. The only ways to truly defeat them are to bypass the armor entirely with mental or sonic attacks, electric currents, or poisons. Occasionally a desperate bruxish will take a crack at a cloyster, but for the most part they succeed in having no predators while almost never moving at all.
Although they prefer to stay tethered to seawalls or submerged rocks, cloyster have still ended up thousands of miles away from their home in the arctic and sub-arctic. This is due to humans. Ships carrying ballast from northern Europe, Japan, and Galar fill up with ballast water from the region. They then dump it upon arrival in Alola. One of these ships brought cloyster to Kala'e Bay. One legend has it that Captain Cook's ship was the one to drop them there, but this seems unlikely. The location is correct. But Cook had dumped and filled the ship's ballast tank several times when he reached Alola. Whoever brought them here, cloyster have thrived in the cool waters of Alola where underground or mountain streams meet the sea.
Cloyster are not well-suited for the island challenge. Neither stage will eat outside the water, although it will take them several hours to suffer adverse health consequences. They tend to clamp up on land to preserve the water inside of their shell. This makes them reluctant battlers and poor companions. Trainers who want a very durable water-type are encouraged to catch a slowpoke or feebas instead.
Physiology
Shellder are classified as a pure water-type. Cloyster gain a secondary ice-typing. While shellder do prefer cold waters, they have no greater affinity for ice attacks than the average water-type. Cloyster, on the other hand, prefer to attack with spears of ice. This is the justification for the secondary typing.
Shellder have a two-segmented shell joined by a hinge. Internal muscles let them forcefully close the shell and keep it closed. The muscles that open the shell are much less well developed. Some crafty predators tie seaweed around them so they cannot open up and feed. The shell is almost as durable as steel. They were integrated into suits of armor in some early civilizations. Traded shells have been found as far south as Mali and India.
One of shellder's most distinctive features is their large tongue. This is not actually a tongue. It is a foot used for digging and movement. The tongue grows slightly faster than the shell. In very old shellder that have not evolved the tongue will begin to stick out even when the shell is closed. Shellder actually ingest food through their siphon, a tube that is ordinarily stored inside their shell.
Both shellder and cloyster have two well developed eyes with lenses. They primarily sense the world through sight. A less obvious organ is the byssal gland. Cloyster and shellder can excrete thin white fibers that are used to attach them to other objects. Byssal fibers are extremely sturdy: attempting to tear a shellder away from something it is attached to is more likely to hurt the shellder than to dislodge the fibers. The byssal fibers are easily cut and doing so does not hurt the pokémon.
Cloyster's shell is often referred to by non-scientists as 'harder than diamond.' This fundamentally fails to identify the strengths of a cloyster's shell. Diamond shatters easily but is nearly impossible to scratch. Cloyster shells can be scratched but are nearly impossible to shatter. There is a second layer of the shell beneath the shatter-resistant armor that is hard to cut but easier to break. The twin layers protect the cloyster from virtually all forms of damage. Upon evolution cloyster are very smooth. Every scratch to the outside layer of the shell is healed in such a way that the area is rougher. Particularly large injuries to the shell result in armored spines growing in the area.
In addition to their armored siphon cloyster also have a more conventional mouth. The mouth is built to bite anything that gets past the armor rather than to eat food. Cloyster are almost exclusively filter feeders.
Cloyster's foot atrophies considerably after evolution. When they must move they propel themselves with jets of water.
Shellder grow to be eighteen inches across and can weigh up to twenty-five pounds. Their wild and captive lifespans are around four years. Cloyster can grow to be six feet across and can weigh up to four hundred pounds. Wild cloyster can live up to thirty-five years. Captive specimens typically live for fifteen.
Behavior
Shellder spend most of their time buried in the sediment. They crawl through the benthos and use their siphon to ingest the sand. What is unused is excreted out of the pokémon's back. On occasion shellder will come to the surface to check for available food there. This is when they are most vulnerable to predators.
Bruxish are shellder's main predator in Alola as they can bite through the shell or inflict telepathic damage from a distance. The Melemele population of bruxish was culled in the 1980s to prevent damage to coral reefs frequented by tourists. This resulted in a rapid increase in the shellder population that has only recently leveled off with the reintroduction of bruxish. Some flying-types such as braviary or, bizarrely, drifblim will lift up shellder high into the air and drop them down onto jagged rocks. This is sometimes enough to kill the pokémon outright.
Cloyster prefer to attach themselves to a hard surface with their byssal glands and set about passively filtering the water. Phytoplankton are their preferred source of food although they will digest almost anything that goes through their siphon. When something antagonizes a cloyster it will either clamp up and rely on its nigh-invulnerable shell or begin bombarding the prey with icicle spears. A particularly annoyed cloyster can even use shell smash, burning away some of their armor for a massive influx of elemental power. Nothing regularly bothers cloyster and cloyster seldom bother anything in return. Theirs is a life of live and let live.
Husbandry
Shellder prefer to live in cool brackish water with a temperature between fifty-five and sixty-five degrees. Calcium carbonate supplements should regularly be added for shell growth. The best tanks for shellder are well-established community tanks with a thick layer of sediment at the bottom. Food will regularly need to be placed on the seabed or buried within it. Shellder being kept in single-species tanks should have their food placed on the surface so the trainer can regularly check up on them. Sometimes shellder in community tanks die unnoticed in the sediment. They can foul the water as they decompose. If a shellder is to be fed beneath the sediment's surface they should be withdrawn at least once a week to ensure it is alive.
Cloyster are trickier to keep in captivity. The tank must be designed in such a way that phytoplankton or marine snow deposited in the tank will flow past the pokémon's preferred resting spot. Almost no aquarium will naturally produce enough organic material to feed a cloyster. Even large cold-water aquariums such as those in Kuchiba and Monterey Bay supplement the diet of their cloyster. Their husbandry is further complicated by the time it takes for them to die of starvation: up to seven months in some cases. It can be hard to tell if a cloyster is being fed well enough until it keels over dead. Introducing too much food runs the risk of decomposition skewing the chemical balance of the tank.
Thankfully, cloyster can thrive in brackish water and feed on phytoplankton. The usual problems facing uncovered saltwater ponds – decreased salinity over time and algae blooms – are not major problems for cloyster as long as the pond is properly aerated. Outdoor ponds in Alola tend to become too hot for cloyster to be comfortable with. An artificial cooling system or weather manipulating ice-types can negate this problem as well. Cloyster themselves can cool the water around them to an extent.
Neither stage is very social. Cloyster enjoy having their shell cleaned and will sometimes come to love battling. Outside of cleaning, training, and the occasional battle cloyster are content to sit still and filter the water. Shellder sometimes appreciate shell cleanings but will generally clamp up if anything gets too close. A human they come to associate with food will sometimes be allowed to train them, but shellder tend to dislike battle.
Neither stage is well-suited for trail life. Cloyster and shellder alike struggle to feed in the sediment-free, all-purpose pools at Pokémon Centers. Many of these pools are also uncomfortably warm for them.
Illness
Cloyster can filter over 5,000 gallons of water a day. This leaves them vulnerable to picking up even minute concentrations of pollutants in the water and incorporating it into their flesh. Because cloyster's organic tissue is almost always concealed from sight and touch it can be very difficult to assess their health. Some cloyster will open up and allow their trainer to inspect their foot from time to time.
Cloyster and shellder aquaculture is a small but established industry on Ula'Ula. There are specialist veterinarians near Castleton and Tapu Village who can conduct proper checkups on bivalves.
Any change in behavior or appearance can be a cause for concern, especially in cloyster. A potentially sick pokémon should be withdrawn into a stasis ball until it can be seen by a veterinarian.
Evolution
Sometimes sand grains get caught inside of shellder. There they gradually mix with bodily fluids to become pearls. These pearls are eventually deposited into the sediment when they become too large. The pearls are of a high quality and are quite valuable, but they have no other special properties.
Cloyster pearls become charged with ice elemental energy. Other strange compounds are mixed in as well. The resulting pearl can trigger a flash evolution in any shellder that touches it. Evolution also consumes the pearl. There is some evidence that it can also trigger evolution in other species, although much of this research is anecdotal. The effect of the pearl on eevee is well documented. Roughly 72% of eevee exposed to a cloyster pearl evolve into glaceon, 15% into vaporeon, and 3% do not evolve as a result of exposure.
Battle
Cloyster are a premier tank or sweeper, especially in metagames that allow for pools. Defensively cloyster can stand still and steadily spread layers of spikes or toxic spikes onto the field. They can also try to trap some threats by clamping down on them with full force, keeping them still. The clamp can also be used as an opening for blasting them with repeated point-black icicle shards or rock blasts. Cloyster struggle to move around well enough to aim attacks on land, but this problem is fixed in the water where hydrokinesis and water jets can allow for small or large adjustments in position.
Alternatively, cloyster can use shell smash. This move makes cloyster far more vulnerable to attacks, but also makes them a lot faster and frees up a great deal of elemental energy. Cloyster are great at linking together many small projectile attacks into an overwhelming torrent. Icicle spear and rock blast are their standard moves. Hydro pump, razor shell, blizzard, and ice beam can be used as the fourth move in a match. Unfortunately, move-per-match limits make it difficult to use cloyster as both a hazard-setter and an effective sweeper in the same match.
The two approaches do not share many counters. Bulky water-types or very fast fighting- or electric-types can outlast or overwhelm shell smash cloyster. Defensive cloyster is best handled through standard stall-breaking tactics such as taunt, encore, and poison.
Shellder may not have cloyster's near invulnerability, but they are still difficult for most weaker foes to take down. Shell smash is seldom the best approach for them. Shellder do not regularly move via water jets so the additional elemental energy does not boost their speed alongside their power. This leaves them as a suddenly vulnerable sitting duck for anything that can get past their attacks.
Acquisition
Shellder and cloyster can be found in Alola's cool waters. The two most notable areas are Route 15 and Kala'e Bay. Capture of shellder is currently allowed only in the latter. The Route 15 population is unstable. Cloyster provide vital ecosystem services by filtering the water. They also do not disturb the native wildlife like many introduced species do. The combination of these traits was enough to grant shellder protection from capture in areas where they are at risk of extirpation. Cloyster capture is prohibited to protect the continued viability of the species. It would also be somewhat unsporting as cloyster never move and are unused to dealing with things that can threaten them.
Shellder can be obtained with a Class III license. Cloyster require a Class IV license to possess, even for trainers who evolved their shellder. Shellder do not inevitably or accidentally evolve into cloyster. The elevated requirement for possession is to deter trainers from evolving their shellder if they are unprepared for caring for a cloyster.
Breeding
Male cloyster are broadcast spawners. They release millions of sperm into the water at once. Some of these may find their way into a female cloyster's siphon. She will then use the sperm to fertilize her eggs. The developing shellder grow up inside of their mother's shell until they are about six inches across. She will then release them. Once they hit the seafloor the new shellder will bury themselves and begin to search for food.
Captive cloyster are easy to breed as there is no need for mate selection. Sperm can be inserted into a female cloyster's tank. After roughly two months shellder will be released. The mother has no particular attachment to her offspring and the new shellder are independent from release. This means they can immediately be sold or relocated.
Relatives
Most cloyster live in the cool waters of the northern oceans. Small populations can also be found in the tropics where underground rivers or glacial meltwater meet the ocean. They were introduced to the waters around Antarctica in the 1970s. At the time Argentina and Chile were attempting to build permanent populated settlements on the continent to shore up their claims to territory there. The Argentinians created a shellder and cloyster farm for food and profit. The project was eventually scrapped due to the severe winter weather making the area unsuitable for year-round civilian populations. One employee let the pokémon go free as an act of mercy. They have since spread throughout the coast of the Weddell Sea.
Local shorebirds have learned how to kill the shellder for food. Ecologists are divided over whether the shellder should be exterminated. They do not seem to be actively harming the ecosystem, but they are an introduced species in an otherwise pristine continent set aside as a nature reserve. The shellder in the farm had been selectively bred to increase their pearl size and growth rate. These traits remain in the feral population. Some taxonomists have proposed that the Antarctic cloyster should have its own subspecies, tentatively dubbed Armis inalgesco australis.