[Video| New Bark Town]

[usedstockpile]

So. I. Talked with the professor in this town. The Johto one. He took a look at His Uselessness.

[Gil's seated at a table in a lab, and behind him in an aquarium is the enormous shiny Magikarp in question.]

Turns out, he has a bit of pica. Meaning he likes to eat rocks. Specific rocks. Everstones, to be precise. A lot of Everstones. Before I caught him he'd eaten so many that they make up a significant percentage of his scales' mineral composition.

[That would explain the weird 'jewels' studding the River King's dorsal fins.]

The only way he'll ever evolve is if he doesn't eat any more everstones and someone manages to remove the ones in his gut, but good luck with that. He'll get new scales in......

A decade.
[Gil's eyes are glazed, and the despair is rather evident. He turns that frown upside down though, and tries to put on that golden cheery smile]

So, anyone want a shiny Magikarp? ♥

Comments

Video;

[sneezelikeakitten]

Have you tried weaning him off of the rocks? Or replacing it with some other rock? I know some animals eat rocks for digestion, but that just sounds excessive.

[Pica can be treated, but how do you do that with a fish?]

Video;

[usedstockpile]

I haven't given him any, and to my knowledge he hasn't gotten a hold of any since being caught. Everstones aren't crazy common, but who knows with this fish.

Video;

[sneezelikeakitten]

So the stones changed his biology. That can happen. You should try to pull some of those scales and see if that helps.

Video;

[usedstockpile]

You're saying I should....pull chunks of what is essentially his skin off.

Video;

[sneezelikeakitten]

[Yes]

I don't know if fish feel pain the same way we do.

Video;

[usedstockpile]

That may be the least thought out plan I've heard since I got here. If he does feel pain, I would have a thirty or fifty pound fish within arm's reach very cross with me. I don't like concussions.