Readers with a soft stomach may want to skip the illness section on this one. Nature can be viscerally upsetting.
Magikarp (Gyarados)
Propedraconis ventumvivum
Overview
Magikarp barely qualifies as a pokémon. It boasts one of the lowest energy potentials of any known pokémon and survives because of its prodigious spawn rate rather than its skill in combat. They are still very common in waters worldwide. Threre are plenty of rare pokémon with extremely high fecundity but low adult numbers. Alomomola is one such example. What lets magikarp survive in large numbers without combat skill, then?
The answer is gyarados. Relatively few magikarp evolve, but those that do become some of the strongest pokémon in the world. Gyarados do not reproduce. They instead serve as protectors for magikarp's habitat. Any predator species that eats too many magikarp will find themselves the victim of a gyarados's wrath. Environmental alterations, whether from humans or pokémon, can be undone with a single well-aimed hyper beam. Few species dare to subsist entirely or even primarily on magikarp and the fish pokémon thrives.
On the island challenge magikarp is not recommended due to its aquatic nature and general weakness. Gyarados is not recommended due to its uniquely unpleasant combination of a bad temper and city-breaking power. Gyarados is also far stronger than a pokémon needs to be to make it through the challenge. Powerful water-types such as primarina, araquanid, and golisopod are far better options. Even aspiring herpetologists and dragon masters are better off raising feraligatr, swampert, or lapras.
Physiology
Magikarp are classified as pure-water types. This is not disputed. Gyarados are officially classified as dual water- and flying-types due to their hydrokinesis and aerokinesis. In addition to those abilities gyarados are adept at using dark, fire, ice, and dragon energy. With training gyarados can use attacks of almost every type. Ordinarily this versatility would warrant a normal or dragon typing, but gyarados have much stronger aerokinesis and hydrokinesis than any other elemental affinity. As such a secondary dragon typing will only be added in the event that triple typings are allowed.
Magikarp appear to be red or orange compressiform fish with the expected gills and fins. In reality magikarp are more closely related to aquatic reptiles such as lapras and blastoise than to actual fish. In addition to their gills magikarp also have lungs that allow them to breathe out of the water. Magikarp can cross short distances on land by flopping around and breathing air. Alternatively, they can use limited aerokinesis to make surprisingly high jumps out of the water and clear as much vertical or horizontal distance as possible.
Once they reach a body of water magikarp are almost always hardy enough to thrive there. Magikarp can tolerate salinities ranging from almost pure water to seawater to some parts of the dead sea. Pollution is seldom a problem for magikarp and the factories or pipelines that do cause problems are quickly destroyed by gyarados. Crude lateral lines allow magikarp to navigate in particularly murky waters.
Gyarados are long serpentine pseudodragons. A blue bone trident adorns their forehead and long whiskers extend below their fangs. Arrays of backward-facing scales form the appearance of multiple segments and guard against almost all attacks. These scales are typically counter-shaded with white or cream scales on the bottom and blue scales on top. Gyarados occasionally have red back scales. This may help disguise them in bloody waters or when the water's surface is reflecting flames. Four dorsal fins and a tail fluke help the pokémon swim.
Gyarados have aerokinesis considerably more advanced than their preevolution. With a little effort gyarados can fly. As fights wear on and gyarados tap into more and more energy the pokémon can find itself surrounded by hurricane-speed winds. Gyarados has trouble directing the winds into attacks. Higher wind speeds lead to faster flight for the gyarados while grounding other fliers.
Particularly large magikarp can reach lengths of over three feet and weigh over twenty pounds. They can live for three years in the wild or ten in captivity. Gyarados can reach thirty feet in length and weigh over 2,000 pounds. In the wild gyarados can live up to eighty years, although in captivity they seldom survive for more than thirty.
Behavior
In freshwater environments magikarp prefer to live in slow-moving areas at the bends of rivers. These small ponds are easy to swim in and new zooplankton, small fish, and crustaceans are constantly brought to them by the river. When they must swim in fast-moving waters magikarp prefer to stick near the surface and move primarily by jumping through the air to avoid the current altogether.
In saltwater environments magikarp typically stick to lagoons, bays, and estuaries. Ponds in tidally influenced marshes are particularly good as they fill up with prey during high tide and are isolated from large predators during low tide.
Magikarp are not particularly social although they do tend to end up living around many other conspecifics. They seldom interact beyond occasional cooperation to figure out a way around a barrier or to trap and kill larger prey.
Gyarados are the defenders of magikarp populations and ecosystems. Ordinarily they stay still at the bottom of shallow lakes, bays, or slow-moving rivers and only move once every few days to ambush and kill a large pokémon in the area, look around the surface, and then submerge again. When disturbed by dredging, divers, or submarines gyarados tend to overreact and destroy not only the offender but almost everything in the area before calming down again.
When magikarp populations decline too much, breeding routes are interrupted, or the environment is threatened by pollution, gyarados go on rampages. Sometimes these are surprisingly targeted against a single species or ship. They are usually not so discerning. One or more gyarados team up to summon a massive storm before moving ashore and destroying a city with rogue waves, gale force winds, and dragonfire that is not put out by rain or seawater. Several ancient civilizations are believed to have collapsed after angering a gyarados. Even in the modern era where captive electric-types and even legendary pokémon are available to defend a city, rampages can still kill thousands of people and cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. The gyarados have also adapted and begun to send up to a half dozen individuals on rampages to account for better defenses.
In Alola the last large-scale rampage was in 1951 following changes in fishing laws that depleted the magikarp population. Small rampages are common and increasingly aimed at Ultra Beasts such as guzzlord. Even small, human-targeted rampages are declining in frequency as milotic diplomacy increasingly gives warning of conditions that would lead to rampages.
Husbandry
Magikarp are best held in small fish ponds or dechlorinated swimming pools. Because magikarp eat mosquito larvae these pools are usually not breeding grounds for unwanted insects. One magikarp can comfortably be held for every two hundred gallons of space available, although some specialists insist on at least five hundred gallons per specimen. There should be sufficient room above the pond to jump and either soft or curved edges to prevent abrasive wounds. The water should have a filtration system capable of handling the waste produced. While magikarp can survive in murky waters, very high nitrite loads can still result in fish deaths.
In addition to insect larvae magikarp should be fed brine shrimp, live or frozen crustaceans, and live or frozen minnows equal to two to three percent of the body mass of the fish in the pond every day.
Occasional enrichment such as singing to the fish, making a game out of obtaining food, or wading into the pond and standing very still is useful for trainers wanting to evolve a magikarp. It is otherwise unnecessary as magikarp have very low stimulation needs.
Gyarados require either a hundred-thousand-gallon aquarium or a large pond or sea pen to be comfortably enclosed. If a gyarados is uncomfortably enclosed it will probably rampage and destroy, at minimum, the enclosure. The habitat should have a layer of soft substrate several feet deep at the bottom. Curved or soft edges are encouraged as gyarados can be wounded by rubbing against concrete too often. Wounds often lead to rampages. Glass is not recommended as a barrier as gyarados are prone to not noticing it, swimming into the wall, becoming enraged, and destroying it. Only constantly and powerfully shielded barriers can withstand a gyarados attack. Bubble curtains or geometric patterns on the glass can reduce collisions. The Monterey Bay Aquarium employed one-way mirrors with some success while it had a gyarados in its collection.
In almost all cases two gyarados held in close quarters will lead to one living gyarados and a badly damaged habitat. The one exception is that gyarados that knew each other as magikarp and live in an environment with adequate space and food will sometimes tolerate or even enjoy the other's company. Most gyarados will tolerate magikarp in their environment. For freshwater ponds the magikarp can provide pest control as well.
Magikarp can tolerate a wide range of salinities. Most aquariums use either seawater mixes or fresh water to house them. Newly evolved gyarados have similar tolerances, although older ones tend to prefer somewhat brackish water. Filtration systems are more important for gyarados care in aquariums than for magikarp. Gyarados will seldom outright die from nitrite loads, but they may kill several humans before flying off to cleaner waters. Fully developed pond ecosystems typically have a robust nitrogen system and do not require external filtration.
Younger gyarados need to eat food just a little bit smaller across than the thinnest part of their body once every week. Older gyarados can comfortably go four to six weeks without eating, although they may begin to get cranky when hungry. Gyarados prefer live food but most will happily eat frozen fish, reptiles, invertebrates, or mammals. Public aquariums have had great difficulty keeping gyarados from eating tankmates out of boredom or hunger or coaxing the serpentser to eat frozen food instead of the live food all around it. A combination of danger to tankmates and exorbitant insurance costs have led to most aquariums that once held gyarados to phase them out, the Hau'oli Aquarium among them. The remaining captive gyarados are mostly owned by professional trainers and either held on the trainer's personal property or loaned to a public aquarium when not in use. These specimens typically have enough discipline to follow basic orders.
Because they have crude lateral lines magikarp and gyarados enclosures should take care to insulate from currents in filtration systems or other nearby electronics. Most home aquaria stores sell insulation guides and equipment. Trainers and institutions with the money to build a non-pond enclosure for gyarados should also have the resources to consult professional architects and electrical engineers.
Any facility keeping a gyarados is strongly recommended to either have a full troupe of Mr. Mime on site or enough powerful electric-types to quickly knock the gyarados out (see Battling). Even calm gyarados should have these counter-measures available to reduce insurance costs.
Magikarp can live out of water for some time, especially with the help of dive balls. Even in the fairly wet environment of Alola they are not recommended for traveling trainers as they require daily feedings that are best done in the water. Gyarados make poor traveling companions as the constantly changing environments of the trail can be stress-inducing. A stressed gyarados is a dangerous gyarados. Additionally, it can be difficult to properly feed a gyarados while traveling, although their infrequent feeding schedule does make them somewhat easier to feed than large carnivorous mammals.
Illness
One of the most common ailments for wild magikarp are parasites. These parasites, typically isopods, will enter magikarp through the gill area. They will then crawl into the mouth and proceed to eat the tongue. The isopod will then settle into the place the tongue formerly occupied and serve as the magikarp's new tongue, taking a cut of the food ingested along the way. As parasites the isopod are incentivized not to kill their host and to make sure it continues to swim and eat: they are seldom a serious health threat to the magikarp and removing them can be fatal as the pokémon suddenly lacks a tongue or any replacement. Parasites are best prevented by occasional doses of fish-friendly pesticides into the water. Unfortunately, this does remove insect larvae that the magikarp would otherwise feed on.
Isopods are no real threat to gyarados due to the sheer size of their tongue. If something were to begin nibbling away the gyarados would simply surface and begin unleashing powerful attacks through their mouth such as hydro pump, hyper beam, or ice fang until the disturbance was killed or removed. Tongue-less magikarp rarely evolve and, if they do, seldom survive for long. One researcher experimented with using a wimpod as a tongue-replacement. The gyarados survived for a little over six months before dying.
The main captive health problem in magikarp and gyarados is abrasion. Repeatedly swimming into concrete or other rough surfaces can wear away at scales and leave open wounds that can become infected. Gyarados cannot easily defend against bacteria. The best way to prevent these injuries is to design a habitat with soft or rounded edges and minimal glass to bump into. Thick substrate beds can prevent injuries from rubbing against the bottom of the tank. Wounded magikarp can be treated by most veterinarians. Gyarados typically require dragon or herptile specialists and/or the assistance of a blissey. Sedating a fully grown gyarados is difficult (see Battle) but useful.
Evolution
When population numbers rapidly decline, magikarp are unable to complete migrations (see Breeding), or pollutant levels tick up, magikarp begin to release schreckstoff. When the water becomes sufficiently saturated the healthiest magikarp in the area evolves in a flash evolution. Newly evolved gyarados are typically about ten feet long and grow throughout the course of their life. Despite their relatively small size newly evolved gyarados are overflowing with elemental energy and more dangerous than all but the most powerful and well-trained of adults.
In captivity evolution can be triggered by dosing a magikarp habitat with schreckstoff. Containment measures should remain on hand until evolution happens as a rampage is almost inevitable. Deliberately evolving a magikarp without a Class V license is a crime.
Battle
The only reason anyone takes the financial and safety risks involved in raising a gyarados is the sheer power they can bring to bear on the battlefield. Between their storms, physical power, and elemental attacks gyarados are one of the strongest pokémon in the world.
Most professional trainers play gyarados defensively at the start of the match using tactics such as protect, rest and sleep talk, substitute, and taunt to set up opportunities to build a storm and boost through dragon dance. With gale force winds and a few minutes of dragon dancing on its side a gyarados are almost impossible to wall.
In turn gyarados are difficult to knock out. Electrical attacks are the easiest means of doing so. These attacks deal decent physical damage and cause severe disorientation and pain by overloading the serpent's lateral lines. Hurting a gyarados has the unfortunate side effect of enraging the gyarados. On the bright side, the pokémon becomes increasingly less likely to obey orders and follow the multistage strategies that make gyarados so dominant. Conversely an angry gyarados boosts its storm much faster and attacks with more savagery than a calm one. It may be easier to win the match but a loss has a much higher chance of being lethal and, given the known risks of enraging a gyarados, referees are unlikely to award excessive force penalties for tactics aimed at angering them rather than knocking them out or otherwise incapacitating them.
The best hard counters to gyarados are capable of negating powerful winds or changing the weather. Salamence, especially in leagues where mega evolution is allowed, routinely uses its own raw power to knock out its opponent before reverse sweeping with the winds coopted.
Without a hard counter or electric-type powerful enough to knock out gyarados within a minute, the best strategy to dealing with gyarados is to put offensive pressure on it early in the round to minimize the energy it can put into setting up winds and dragon dances.
Magikarp, while not entirely unable to battle, will seldom win a matchup on land. Their options are limited to flailing around with enough force to hopefully injure something else and, with sufficient training, slinging weak water attacks. In the water magikarp are at least capable of decent tackles.
Acquisition
Magikarp are found in most estuaries, bays, shallow ponds, and river bends in Alola. They are easily captured without a fight. So long as their new habitat is adequate the magikarp will seldom make a fuss. Alternatively, many fish and landscaping stores sell magikarp. Magikarp can be caught or purchased with a Class I license. Few shelters will adopt magikarp and they can be easily released to the wild with no ecological problems.
Gyarados that begin to rampage are either put down or captured. The Ranger's Union has a waiting list to obtain a gyarados. If the trainer did not attend the battle themselves a proving battle or two will be necessary to get the gyarados to obey their new trainer. Some private trainers may also be willing to sell a trained gyarados. Gyarados can only be possessed with a Class V license.
Breeding
Magikarp return en masse to the place they were born to breed. Magikarp are surprisingly adept at moving through obstacles such as rapids. Some even cross entire mountain ranges. Once enough magikarp have arrived a mass spawning event begins. All magikarp subsequently die so that their corpses can help feed the hatchlings.
Gyarados are incapable of reproduction.
Magikarp have never bred in captivity. Some institutions do take fingerlings from spawning areas and raise them in captivity. This does lead to a very high survival rate but has no conservation purpose given the abundance of wild magikarp.
Relatives
Subtle variations, in length, body shape, mass, and coloration can be observed between populations.
Magikarp inhabit most coastal waters and near-coastal river systems in the Old World. The population in Alola was introduced from Japan. Gyarados have reduced the populations of some large fish species such as alomomola, bruxish, and sharpedo. In turn their ferocious protection of habitats has let smaller fish species thrive despite competition from magikarp.
Milotic are gyarados's closest living relatives. The two will usually tolerate each other in captivity and the wild. Dunsparce is their next closest relative. The three make up the genus Propedraconis, more commonly referred to as pseudodragons. They are reptiles with several draconic traits that have not yet evolved to rely primarily on dragonfire or engage in rituals common to the true dragons. Most dragon specialists count them as dragons and their husbandry tends to be more similar to that of true dragons than conventional snakes.