Alomomola
Piscesrotam traxere
Overview
Alomomola is a large and relatively peaceful fish. The mucus they excrete accelerates tissue regeneration and provides material akin to stem cells to facilitate regrowth. This has earned alomomola a reputation as the blissey of the seas and a keystone of marine communities.
Alomomola are still a pain to care for on the island challenge. They have extremely limited mobility on land and cannot survive outside of the water for more than a half hour. Alomomola are also massive creatures that require a great deal of food. The core of an adult's diet, jellies, can be tricky for even public aquariums to replicate.
While they are a fascinating species and well worth learning about, we cannot recommend alomomola for trainers on the island challenge. Their care is best left to professionals.
Physiology
Alomomola are classified as pure water-types. This designation is not controversial.
Alomomola are very large fish with a laterally compressed body. They lack a caudal fin. Instead, they have a fused clavus that acts as a rudder. The two protrusions around the clavus make alomomola look a great deal like a massive luvdisc, even though the two are not closely related (see Relatives). Alomomola have large pectoral and dorsal fins they can move laterally, letting them move through the water at a surprising clip. Alomomola can swim up to sixteen miles in a day while cruising.
Alomomola are classified as bony fish. Their closest relatives have hard bones, unlike the cartilaginous structure of the most primitive fish. Alomomola's skeleton is actually mostly cartilaginous to allow for their large size.
Their skin can be over three inches thick, letting them comfortably ignore most bite wounds. Above the skin is a layer of mucus one to two inches thick. Alomomola's mucus facilitates rapid tissue regeneration in anything that comes into contact with or consumes it. This serves a few purposes. The pokémon itself can quickly heal any shallow wounds it does sustain. It also encourages smaller pokémon to congregate nearby, which provides another form of defense, parasite removal, and a quick meal if the alomomola lacks the energy to dive. Large predators are also deterred from attacking alomomola by the possibility they will need healing in the future.
Alomomola's digestive tract has several special adaptations to facilitate their strange diet. The first is that they have a beak-like pair of bony plates in their mouth instead of rows of conventional teeth. These let them shred jellies by sucking them in through the plates, spitting them out, and repeating the process until their prey has disintegrated into a sludge-like substance that can be slurped down. They do have pharyngeal teeth in the throat to keep other prey from escaping. The digestive tract is lined with a thin layer of mucus to prevent the pokémon from being stung.
Adult alomomola are typically around five feet long and eight feet tall. They usually weigh between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds. Very large specimens can be 10 feet tall and weigh 5,000 pounds. Captive specimens have a documented lifespan of over thirty years, although with modern husbandry practices it is possible they could live for far longer. Wild lifespans are poorly understood.
Behavior
Alomomola are commonly seen basking near the surface. While there they can attract a collection, referred to as a ward, of marine species that want to heal, feed on alomomola's parasites, or find protection in a group. Alomomola are tolerant of their wards and rarely eat members of them. The exceptions occur when they are either very hungry or critically wounded. Sometimes alomomola have even helped distressed sailors return to shore, seemingly without an expectation of reward. Alomomola are usually fine with scuba divers and snorkelers approaching them. All of this has earned them a reputation as a passive, peaceful pokémon.
Alomomola are actually predators. They only come to the surface to warm themselves up after deep dives. Alomomola spend most of their time in the Mesopelagic Zone several hundred feet below the surface. They are generalist predators that will eat fish, squid, and crustaceans. These make up the core of a juvenile alomomola's diet. Adults transition to primarily feeding on jellies such as tentacool, frillish, non-pokémon jellyfish, siphonophores, and salps. The middle of the water column is dominated by jellies and alomomola are one of the few large species that preys upon them. Alomomola can eat upwards of thirty pounds during a single dive.
One of alomomola's strangest behaviors is breaching. They will swim towards the surface at full speed and leap up to ten feet out of the water before crashing back down. Alomomola do not seem particularly concerned with where they land. This has resulted in the confirmed deaths of two boaters, six snorkelers, and a scuba diver in the last fifty years. These fatalities appear to be accidental as the alomomola will offer mucus to any injured survivors.
Husbandry
Alomomola are large marine carnivores. While they lack the temperament of the average apex predator, the nature of their diet and their sheer size makes them a formidable challenge for aquarists.
Alomomola have difficulty turning quickly. This can result in frequent collisions with tank edges. The surface wounds may heal, but the pokémon will still be unhappy. Some aquariums have found success with rounded curtains around the tank edges so alomomola cannot crash into a hard surface and will be gently pushed back to the center of the tanks. Others have used bubble curtains to provide a visually distinct indicator of where the tank edges are. Alomomola also enjoy playing in the bubbles. The best solution is to have an enclosure with several million gallons of water so the alomomola rarely encounters the edges and can swim in large circles in the center of the tank.
Alomomola require water temperatures above 55 degrees Fahrenheit. They prefer temperatures be far warmer, ideally above seventy degrees. They cannot survive for long in fresh water but can tolerate brackish water if they are slowly acclimated to it.
Growing alomomola will eat anything that fits in their mouth. They should be fed 3% of their body weight in a high protein diet every day. Adult alomomola prefer jellies, although squid and fish can make for good treats. Some aquariums still hunt or breed tentacool for their alomomola. This was standard practice around thirty years ago but has since fallen out of favor. It is now more common to create a protein rich gelatinous mixture. This allows for careful monitoring of dietary intake and the addition of supplemental vitamins and minerals. It is also far cheaper than keeping a vast quantity of jellies on hand.
Alomomola will need to either be fed in their own tank or fed by hand. Otherwise, they will be consistently outcompeted by their more nimble tankmates. This is especially true for juveniles being fed more desirable foods. Isolation or hand feeding allow for increased bonding time and a chance to monitor the pokémon for parasites.
Most saltwater marine pokémon are good tankmates for alomomola. In turn, alomomola recognize the concept of a ward and will not attack any of their tankmates as long as they are well fed themselves. Jellies such as tentacruel and jellicent are not suitable teammates.
Alomomola are not particularly social pokémon. They live alone, ward aside, in the wild. They are unlikely to have extensive interactions with either their tankmates or trainer in captivity.
Enrichment items usually go unused. Artificial crabs on the bottom of the tank may gain the pokémon's interest, especially if they contain food. One captive specimen has been known to drag around a rope placed in the tank. Sometimes alomomola will surface to listen to music. All forms of bubblers aerate the water and are well-loved by most specimens.
Illness
Alomomola's mucus is useful for curing the pokémon itself and any allies. It can also cure humans of their wounds. The substance has its limits. It only works well for wounds and has a limited effect on illnesses. The rapid acceleration of cell growth also makes it dangerous for cancer patients. Research is mixed as to whether repeated exposure increases the likelihood of cancer. Alomomola themselves have evolved to be almost entirely immune to cancer, suggesting that repeated exposure could be dangerous. An alternative hypothesis is that a past version of the mucus was a carcinogen and the cancer immunity is simply a vestigial adaptation. The immunity could also have evolved to allow for a longer lifespan.
Alomomola themselves struggle with parasites. Over forty different species of parasite have been observed on a single specimen in the wild. Most dig into the mucus or skin. A few live internally, usually in the mucus of the digestive tract. The smaller members of a wild specimen's ward will pick off most of these parasites for a meal and the alomomola's goodwill. Sometimes the species will bask on the surface in hope of birds picking off some of the parasites.
Remoraid make excellent partners for alomomola. Specimens raised without small fish will need to be regularly assessed by their trainer and have parasites removed from the mucus by hand or surgically excised from the skin. The wound will quickly heal over and alomomola have few nerve endings in the skin, meaning that no specialized training is needed to remove these parasites. Any equipment used still needs to be disinfected before the procedure.
Aquariums differ on which insecticide is used to handle internal parasites, or whether this is necessary at all. Artificial seawater, thorough cleaning of objects introduced to the tanks and very strict quarantine practices can minimize the risk of parasites entering the tank's ecosystem in the first place.
Some sailors have taken to taming alomomola by bribing them with food until they agree to enter a pokéball or follow a ship. So long as they are regularly fed, alomomola are usually content to swim alongside the vessel and heal any injuries the sailors or their pokémon sustain. This is only viable on slower ships in warm waters with enough freezer space for a voyage's worth of crustaceans, squid, fish, of gelatin mix.
Evolution
There is a common misconception that alomomola evolve from luvdisc. They do not. Hatchlings resemble qwilfish. Over the course of their life these hatchlings will grow to fifty million times their initial weight, the largest growth ratio of any known pokémon. The fry begin to resemble their adult form when they are about one inch long. From there they grow in size but barely change in shape.
Battle
Alomomola suffer from the same problem as most fish in that they are essentially useless in stadiums without a deep saltwater feature. Even where they can be used, alomomola struggle to pull their weight between their limited offensive abilities and the unreliability of their healing methods in practice. They can leave mucus behind or try to pass a wish, but both can be intercepted and used by the opponent instead.
The species fairs better in doubles where they can control the recipients of their mucus or heal at a distance through heal pulses. Alomomola can also learn helping hand to assist their allies. Still, being a pokémon whose only reliable use is in doubles matches in arenas with saltwater has led to even the professional water-type specialists passing over them.
Alomomola's offenses are theoretically better on the island challenge, but even the totem arenas with ponds tend not to be deep enough for an adult alomomola to swim in.
Acquisition
Adult alomomola can be found off the coast of Alola. Trainers looking for one should fly around and look for a basking specimen. Hand feeding the pokémon consistently for several days can earn enough trust to go into a pokéball. The quotas on adult capture are strict. In some years there are no captures allowed.
Most aquariums capture juveniles living in estuaries such as Brooklet Hill. Fry often have too little elemental energy to be captured in a pokéball but they can be captured through conventional nets. The specimen is then raised in a set of increasingly larger tanks until they reach adulthood.
There is almost never an opportunity to obtain a specimen through adoption or purchase.
Alomomola can be obtained with a Class IV license.
Breeding
Alomomola reproduction is poorly understood. They have never bred in captivity or been observed mating in the wild. It is believed that copulation occurs at depth.
The dam also appears to spawn at depth, releasing up to 300,000,000 eggs. When they grow to a centimeter in size, the fry will seek out nearby estuaries to grow in. They will return to the open ocean when they are about two feet long. Mortality is exceedingly high before adulthood, at which point alomomola have virtually no predators.
Programs that raise fry in captivity before releasing them as adults have helped the population rebound in areas where they have been devastated by bycatch in gamefish nets.
Relatives
Alomomola's closest living relative is qwilfish. The two diverged over sixty million years ago, shortly after the mass extinction event that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs. The fossil record suggests that alomomola developed their current shape around ten million years ago. Soft tissues such as mucus are not often preserved, especially in marine environments, so little is known about when, how, or why this adaptation developed.