Hello Pokémon fans, I'm Leaderfuzzy, and welcome to this series which I'm now calling Pokéquarium!
*Gen 3 shiny sound effect for new logo*
In this series, I observe a marine Pokémon of some sort and figure out what it is based on!
I'll do this by focusing on different sections that highlight the creature,
and help to understand the reasoning behind its inspiration.
Today, we'll be talking about the dual water / poison type Pokémon Mareanie and its evolution Toxapex,
but before we get into the meat of it, I have a story from my first playthrough of Pokémon sun
where I saw Mareanie for the first time
*Enter Wailord Boat*
As I was exploring Route 7 on Akala Island, I encountered a trainer called "Swimmer Casey"
If you know me from my lets play channel Brohive, you'll know that my real name is Casey.
When I was playing the game and first saw this, I was dumbfounded.
It's as if they put me in the game!
Well we look a bit different, but that's fine!
But that wasn't the end of it.
Swimmer Casey then threw out a Pokémon I had never seen before!
When I first saw this new Pokémon, it was clear that it was based on an interesting marine creature.
The spikes on its arms made me think it was some sort of Sea Urchin,
but the way the creature was positioned meant it could also be a drooping sea anemone or something.
Either way, I needed one on my team.
I did some research, and it turns out the only way Mareanie can be encountered
is if you fish up a Corsola, the coral Pokémon, and make it call for help at low health.
So it's clear that there's a lot going on with this Alolan Pokémon.
And I'm determined to figure out what it is.
Despite Mareanie's design being hard to identify, its behavior and physical features point to it being based solely off of a single creature.
But what real life creature could be the source for all of Mareanie's odd features?
Well it turns out it's not a sea urchin or sea anemone at all,
but a type of starfish!
This is the Crown of Thorns Starfish.
An echinoderm found in the Indo-Pacific Region,
also known as Acanthaster Planci
This starfish can range from 25 to 35 centimeters in diameter, and can have up to 21 arms.
Each one these arms are equipped with many venomous spines, which are sharp enough to easily pierce through soft surfaces.
Making it quite difficult to deal with!
Despite them looking quite stiff and rigid while flaunting their numerous spikes,
Acanthaster Planci's arms are able to easily bend and twist around the only thing it eats.
Coral.
Yep, these starfish are infamous for their voracious appetite
of one of the most beautiful sessile marine creatures.
Acanthaster Planci is very fast for a starfish, moving at 20 meters per hour.
It is also nocturnal, and each night it can eat its own body area in coral.
This adds up to consuming 13 square meters of coral a year for one starfish.
So as you can imagine, outbreaks of this species are pretty devastating to coral reefs.
Although in some cases, having a *few* Crown of Thorns around a coral reef can be beneficial,
as they usually prefer eating fast growing branching coral.
By eating these fast growing coral species, it can allow for enormous slow growing coral to increase in population
and increase the species diversity of coral in that area.
Now if you look back on Mareanie for a second,
it has one of the most interesting predator-prey relationships with another Pokémon found in the Alola region.
Like I said before, the only way to encounter a Mareanie in the wild
is to find a Corsola in the ocean and have it cry for help at low health.
This usually summons an ally Pokémon to help attack for it,
But Mareanie is different.
Instead of attacking the player, Mareanie will prey upon the low-health Corsola.
In Mareanie's Pokedex entry in Sun, it states that:
"The coral that grows on Corsola's head is as good as a five-star banquet to this Pokémon."
So finding a low health Corsola that is crying for help
essentially means that a dinner bell has rung for Mareanie,
and it'll show up to finish the job
So it's clear that Mareanie is based off of the Crowns of Thorns Starfish, if only for its diet alone,
but one aspect that gives that away more than anything is the shape of its prey.
As I mentioned before, the Crown of Thorns Starfish prefers to eat branching Coral above all else.
This is because it can easily wrap around the coral with its arms and digest it.
Knowing this, Mareanie eating Corsola is much more justified.
Just look at the shape of Corsola!
Its Coral appendages are clearly branched, making it the perfect prey for Mareanie.
Corsola's Pokedex entry in Ultra Moon also states that
its branches are stubby due to the overpopulation of Mareanie in the area.
This perfectly mirrors Crown of Thorns Starfish outbreaks in coral reefs such as the great Barrier Reef,
where they're considered a major threat.
Acanthaster Planci can turn a vibrant ecosystem
into a white mass of skeleton if their numbers are not controlled.
So, you may be wondering why predators don't just eat the crown of thorns starfish?
How can they be so out of control?
Well, those spikes on its arms aren't just there for show.
They're actually very venomous.
However, unlike other venomous predators,
the Crown of Thorns Starfish has no means of injecting its toxins.
Instead, it acts as a defense mechanism.
If anything accidently touches or steps on its spines, they may break,
causing the toxic saponins to be lost in the wounds.
In humans, this can cause a sharp, stinging pain that can last for several hours,
and can also result in nausea and swelling of tissue for a few days.
In addition, the saponins that Acanthaster Planci possesses also have an unpleasant taste.
So anything that manages to eat it likely won't want to keep it down.
Needless to say, this is a creature that should not be carelessly touched,
meaning that it is very hard for its natural predators to control its population.
The only known predator to consistently prey upon the Crown of Thorns Starfish is the Triton Snail,
which is essentially a very large sea snail.
After this Gastropod gets ahold of the Crown of Thorns,
the starfish's only hope of survival is to abandon one of its limbs to get away.
The Triton Sea Snail is such an effective predator that once the Crown of Thorns Starfish smells it in the water,
it will visibly flee.
However, the Triton Sea Snail is not often in high enough abundance to keep the Crown of Thorns population controlled.
And due to its venomous spines,
very few creatures come between it and its coral based meals.
Mareanie and its evolution Toxapex seem to boast a similar toxin,
but one difference between the Crown of Thorns Starfish and Mareanie is that
Mareanie actually has a method of Injecting its toxins.
The venomous spikes of Mareanie's evolution, Toxapex, boast similar effects as the Crown of Thorns Starfish.
Toxapex's Pokedex Entry in Moon states that:
"Those attacked by Toxapex's poison will suffer intense pain for three days and three nights, and post recovery, there will be some aftereffects."
Knowing how much damage the Crown of Thorns Starfish toxins can do,
Toxapex's signature move, Baneful Bunker,
makes a lot more sense.
It's essentially guarding itself from any predators,
and anything that happens to make contact will be heavily poisoned.
And while the Crown of Thorns' venom may not leave you with pain for 3 days and 3 nights,
It can certainly last a few hours.
However, the nausea and swelling it creates may very well last three days afterward.
Maybe those were the aftereffects that were mentioned?
In any case, the Crown of Thorns Starfish has ample toxic protection throughout its entire juvenile and adult life history stages,
but did you know they also contain toxins in their larval stages?
It was recently discovered that planktivorous fish that tried to feed on the eggs and larvae of the Crown of Thorns Starfish
Often rejected them instead of eating them.
This is likely because their eggs and larvae contain similar saponins as their adult forms,
making their early life history stages poisonous instead of venomous.
Side note:
The difference between a creature being poisonous and venomous depends on how the host contracts the toxin.
If you eat something and contract toxins, that thing is poisonous.
If a creature injects the toxins into its prey, that's venom.
So as you can see, the Crown of Thorns Starfish is fairly well protected throughout its entire life,
guarded by a variety of toxins.
Making it a creature you wouldn't want to mess with.
So now that we're done comparing Mareanie's diet and toxins to that of the Crown of Thorns Starfish,
let's take a look at the visual similarities.
Mareanie and Toxapex's colors include
light blue, purple, red, and yellow hues.
This is actually fairly accurate to the real thing, considering the Crown of Thorns Starfish can come in a variety of colors.
And surprisingly, Toxapex is closer to the real thing than Mareanie is.
Just look at these pictures! It's like looking through a much more detailed mirror!
While this starfish is known to come in a variety of blues that resemble Mareanie's arms,
very little Crown of Thorns display the pale purple hue that Mareanie has on its head,
and instead boast much deeper purples and blues.
In fact, the most accurate color these Pokémon have to the real thing come from their shiny forms!
[Shiny Mareanie and Toxapex appeared!]
While the Crown of Thorns Starfish may come in a variety of colors,
it is not often that it will display just one.
This creature usually displays many bright colors to alert predators to stay away.
However, when the crown of Thorns comes in red, it is usually mostly red,
with small hints of other colors to emphasize it,
Now, lets take a look at their arms,
er.. tentacles, or hair?
I don't know.
whatever they are, Mareanie has 10 of them,
while Toxapex is shown to have 12.
The Crown of Thorns Starfish can have up to 21 arms,
so the difference likely exists just to simplify the design.
In terms of size, Mareanie is about 1 foot tall
and Toxapex is a little over 2 feet tall.
Early Juveniles of the Crown of Thorns Starfish are often less than 2.5 centimeters long,
but this is only because they haven't found a stable source of food yet.
Once larger juveniles begin to feed on coral, they grow more rapidly than any stage in their life cycle,
at around 16 mm a month.
And once a diet of coral is established for a prolonged period,
the juvenile can mature into its adult phase,
where they can grow as big as 25 and 35 centimeters in diameter,
but some specimens have been recorded to be up to 80 centimeters long,
that's over 2 feet wide!
Knowing this, Mareanie could very well represent a late Juvenile Crown of Thorns that has just begun feeding on coral,
and is likely doing so to increase in size to adulthood.
AKA, Evolution.
Hey thanks for watching!
I'd like to give a big shoutout to anyone who let me use their art in this video.
You can find links to their websites in the description!
If you want to see more of my work,
I have 2 videos focusing on Crabrawler and Pyukumuku that you can check out now.
It really mans a lot to know that you guys are enjoying my videos.
I have a lot more ideas that I hope you'll stick around for.
I hope you enjoy them!
Thanks for watching, and I hope you have a great day.
(And I hope you enjoyed the subtitles!)
Follow me on Twitter and Tumblr! (Links in the description)
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