Lunamal: Occshell

Meet the Occshell! This Lunamal was one of my first creatures and I didn't even know it at the time. He is inspired by one of my sketching daily challenges. He is a turtle-octopus hybrid and while it is built for the water, it does surprising well on land.

His body is built just like an octopus with no major bone structure. This gives him the flexibility he needs to be fast in the water, but leaves him venerable while on land. He protects himself by squeezing his body into his shell and can manipulate his skin and shell pigment to colors in the families of grey, brown, purple, green and blue.

He has 8 tentacles, 6 positioned on the back end of his shell and two that are attached to his body just below his head. The front tentacles are shorter and have suction cups running along them that they use for climbing and holding on to objects. When moving he will stand on his back tentacles using the front two for balance. While he travels very slowly on land, he is one of the fastest creatures in the water. He uses his shell like a pump and will push water out of his shell for quick take offs or for quick bursts of speed.

Similar to a turtle, the Occshell will lay its eggs once a year before the ice moon enters the atmosphere. Unlike turtles who can mate with multiple partners in one season, Occshells will mate for life. Once their mate dies they will then find another partner. During the time of the crater moon, the mated pair of Occshell will dig deep into the earth to lay its eggs. Once the eggs are laid they will pull them into their shell and keep them safe while hibernating during the ice moon. As the ice melts and the water moon appears in the sky, the Occshell are flushed out of their holes and will release their hatchlings into the water. They grow quickly during the water moon and will reach 6 inches in length by the time the moon leaves the atmosphere. The Occshell will continue growing its whole life. Once it's shell reaches 8 inches in length, its growth will slow and it might only grow half an inch a year after that.

During their first few seasons, they will stick to bodies of water until they are large enough to fend for themselves on land, and even then will live in large groups until it is sexually mature. The occshell has very keen eyesight and sense of touch, it uses both of these to locate his food. While an omnivore, he prefers to eat small Lunamal they can find in the mud and sand. On land and during the dry seasons, they will stick mainly to vegetation. While they grow quickly the occshell will not reach sexual maturity until 15-20 years of age, and can live until they are 80-100 years old. There are some that have been reported to live upwards of 150 years. However once they are 80 years old, the female occshell will stop producing eggs. Their male partner will stay with them until ether the female dies or it dies. If the female dies first it can then find another partner and continue breeding. If the male dies the female will join other older pairings. Small colonies of old female occshell can be found living together.

The Occshell is very social, and it is rare to see one living alone. They have been known to follow other large  Lunamal until it finds other Occshell to colonize with. It is not unusual for an older Occshell to be seen with young hatchlings. While the parents do not teach their young how to survive, rogues will adopt a young group and teach them what to eat and how to live. This is crutial to the young Occshell's survival and without this guidance a colony of hatchlings will not make it through their first year.