Skekfish

"They're like living knives!"

- Nell Davengatt's immediate reaction after being attacked by skekfish.

Skekﬁsh, also colloquially called "knife-ﬁsh," were small, burrowing predators that hunted in schools.

Biology and behavior
Skekfish are hybrid of carbon- and silicon-based life. Each individual ranged in length from 30 to 40 centimeters. The skekfish was covered with lines of hundreds of tiny, razor-sharp, metallic fin-scales which it used to provide locomotive force while burrowing. It had four body-length rudder-fins to alter its direction, which gave the predator the appearance of swimming through the ground. Skekfish were able to burrow through wood and solid rock. Skekfish lacked eyes and hunted solely by sound.

The skekfish's dual-element physiology necessitated the consumption of both dirt and meat for survival, and an adult skekfish would starve after 48 hours without animal flesh. Skekfish attacked by springing from the ground in formation, launching themselves directly at prey. They fed as they burrowed through the target creature.

Skekfish hatched from eggs, were able to reach adulthood within 24, and were capable of rapid reproduction. Skekfish populations quickly devestate the ecology of an entire planet. When the predators exhausted a biomass, the adults would lay a clutch of eggs in the most in the bodies of their last remaining victims, then instinctively covered the nests with fresh soil. Skekfish eggs could remain viable for thousands of years, hatching once the eggs were disturbed by new animal populations.