The Mud Strider

Found inhabiting the tropical mangroves, rivers and floodplains of western Merged Oceana, the Mud Strider (Ambuloichthys inkquilli), is a descendant of the Holocene epoch’s Mudskipper.

Much like its ancestor, the Mud Strider has an amphibious life style, able to swim in the rivers and streams yet also able to pull itself on land and walk on land. It's name literally translates into "Walking Fish". However, unlike its ancestor, the Mud Strider has grown in size, now reaching over a foot in length, and has developed a secondary pair of muscular fins towards the back of it's body, enabling it to walk across the damp mud and land much easier then it's ancient Mud Skipper relative.

They also have developed a much more communal way of life. Living in family groups the Mud Strider has evolved to safeguard their young. Dredging up mud from the river banks, they build build dams along the river shore, creating a vast network of lagoons where they lay their eggs and watch over them during the duration of their gestation.

Both males and females take turns watching the eggs while the other feeds. Like their ancestors, they draw up nutrients from the sediments in the river mud. When nutrients levels decrees they simply move, utilizing their muscular fins to pull themselves across the land to "greener pastures".