The ship and it's ecology 
                             
                            Did you wonder how many creatures 
                              are inhabitating the Ship and what's their name? 
                              That's why I put up a list for you with their common 
                              names but also with the latin names! I didn't invent 
                              them, but the developers at Creatureslabs did. Some 
                              of them are really funny, you'll smile, for sure! 
                              I added to each creature where it usually lives 
                              and what it needs for it's living. There is a real 
                              food chain existing in all of the four terrariums, 
                              a constant"Eat and get eaten".
                            
                             
                            
                            
                            
                               
                                | Creature | Name | Latin Name | Located | 
                               
                                |  | Norn | Cyberlifogenis cutis | Everywhere on the ship, but 
                                    prefers the Norn-Terrarium | 
                               
                                |  | Ettin | Cyberlifogenis kleptomania | To be found everywhere on 
                                    the ship, doesn't absolutely need to be in 
                                    it's home terrarium (the desert) but likes 
                                    to return there, especially after having found 
                                    portable equipment... | 
                               
                                |  | Grendel | Cyberlifogenis vicious | Found everywhere on the ship. 
                                    It's home terrarium is the jungle. | 
                            
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                            The Norn Terrarium
                            
                               
                                | Creature |  Name | Latin Name | Location | 
                               
                                |  | Pumperspikel | Pumpica spikelum | Meant is the Pumperspikel 
                                    tree where theses fruits grow. The seeds are 
                                    a very good food source for norns. | 
                               
                                |  | Apple | Malus albia | Apples grow on the apple tree. 
                                    (how smart! :-)) | 
                               
                                |  | Waterplant | Yucca aquatiform | There are three of these waterplants 
                                    located in the pond. They don't die out.. | 
                               
                                |  | Grass | Poa verdanata | Needs warmth, humidity and 
                                    light for growing..  | 
                               
                                |  | Foxglove | Digitalis bensimpsus | Needs warmth, humidity and 
                                    light to grow. Can die out if there are too 
                                    less seeds disseminated. You can bring it 
                                    back by means of the seed bank. It's nectar 
                                    is food for bees and butterflies which pollinate 
                                    the foxgloves in return. | 
                               
                                |  | Pinky Plant | Dianthus statiphytes | This plant doesn't die out. 
                                    Food plant for bees and butterflies. | 
                               
                                |  | Blue Flower | Cynoflora morrisii | This plant doesn't die out. 
                                    Food plant for bees, butterflies and kolibris. | 
                               
                                |  | Grazer | Scatus harmenius | Peaceful, eats grass (therefore 
                                    it's name!). | 
                               
                                |  | Grasshopper | Idealus roberticum | Eats leaves and hoppes from 
                                    here to there.... | 
                               
                                |  | Bee | Bombillius lisasillius | Needs nectar from the flowers 
                                    of plants, lives in bee hives. Be carful! 
                                    it stings your norns when they try to play 
                                    with them! "Ouch!" | 
                               
                                |  | Butterfly | Papillio haywardian | The caterpillars eats leaves, 
                                    then they will climb the plants and transform 
                                    into beautiful butterflies which need the 
                                    flowers of the plants resp. it's nectar as 
                                    food. | 
                               
                                |  | Ant | Formica saunterous albia | Takes care of the organic 
                                    deposits and detritus | 
                               
                                |  | Dragonfly | Flitus bhomicus | Eats other insects, the larvae 
                                    eat the leaves of the water plant, so dragonflies 
                                    need water around to lay there eggs in. | 
                               
                                |  | Hummingbird | Tristaniana bussia | Needs nectar of flowers to 
                                    survive.  | 
                               
                                |  | Wood Pigeon | Columba cantellia | Eats different insects, fruits, 
                                    seeds | 
                               
                                |  | Robin | Charltonian albia | Eats insects and makes it's 
                                    nest sometimes in the apple tree where you 
                                    can see (with a little luck!) the young robings 
                                    getting old enough to fly off. | 
                               
                                |  | Gosh Hawk | Assipter stewardian | Eats grazers. | 
                               
                                |  | Kingfisher | Alcedo makious cristoph | Catches and eats the stickletrout, 
                                    that's why you can find the kingfisher always 
                                    near the pond. | 
                               
                                |  | Hedgehog | Erinaceus albia | Eats insects and snails. | 
                               
                                |  | Hoppity | Hoppis napes roo | Eats fruits. Can multiply 
                                    extremly fast if food situation allows and 
                                    your game can ge flooded with hoppities... | 
                               
                                |  | Stickletrout | Salar stikus | Lives in the pond and eats 
                                    (almost) anyyting what's falling into the 
                                    water, above all insects. | 
                               
                                |  | Snail | Barrus osullivus | Eats organic detritus.  | 
                            
                             
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                            The Desert Terrarium
                            
                               
                                | Creature |  Name | Latin Name | Location | 
                               
                                |  | Cacbana | Burbania barnabicia | Needs lot of light and heat, 
                                    it's more succulent. | 
                               
                                |  | Desert Grass | Festuca xerophilus | Adapted to the desert, needs 
                                    light and heat. | 
                               
                                |  | Balloon Bug | Apterus claudinio | Lives with and from the Cacbanas. | 
                               
                                |  | Gnarler | Hungarius oscari | Eats the stones from the vulcano 
                                    once they're cooled. Strange diet, but make 
                                    sure there are enough stones laying around 
                                    so the Gnarlers won't die out. | 
                               
                                |  | Meerk | Sciurus harmanii | Eats Balloon Bugs and and 
                                    likes to dig into the ground. | 
                               
                                |  | Uglee | Grendomorphis vulgaris | Eats Gnarler eggs which it 
                                    spies during its flights. | 
                            
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                            The Jungle Terrarium
                            
                               
                                | Creature |  Name | Latin Name | Location | 
                               
                                |  | Tendril | Coeloformis albia |  Easy to grow, needs only 
                                    a bit of humidity. Can even grow in complete 
                                    darkness! | 
                               
                                |  | Fungi | Amanita albia | Needs humidity, but can grow 
                                    almost everywhere, also on darkness. | 
                               
                                |  | Purbana | Coleus purpureum | This plant never dies out. 
                                    Apart of this it doesn't play further role 
                                    in the ecosystem.... | 
                               
                                |  | Wasp | Netelia davidum | Eats fruits and stings when 
                                    getting annoyed! | 
                               
                                |  | Dragonfly | Flitus bhomicus | Eats other insects, the larvae 
                                    eat the leaves of the water plant, so dragonflies 
                                    need water around to lay there eggs in. | 
                               
                                |  | Gnats | Strawcium gigantus | Only being seen in swarm. 
                                    They eat male Grendels! Never seen until now? 
                                    Yes, of course the do exist, watch closer 
                                    and then you might be able to catch a glimps 
                                    of them hovering between the leaves... | 
                               
                                |  | Rocklice | Jonti praticilium | Eats insects, drills itself 
                                    into the ground and get's nasty sometimes. | 
                               
                                |  | Kobold | Baldium mysterious | Eats insects, fruits and other 
                                    food which is brought into the jungle by other 
                                    creatures. The Kobold is constantly a bit 
                                    ill-tempered. | 
                               
                                |  | Piranha | Viscious fiscious | Dangerous! Eats every creature 
                                    that falls into it's pond and there will be 
                                    nothing left but a few bones... | 
                               
                                |  | Mosquito | Mossee darmicus | Ouch! Stings and very nasty! | 
                               
                                |  | Rhino Beetle | Tuffus burchiium maximus | Eats organic detritus. | 
                               
                                |  | Bacteria | Bhowmicoccus nornovora | Responsible for any kinds 
                                    of infectuous illnesses in Norns! Cannot be 
                                    seen by the naked eye, you need special tools 
                                    to make them visible. | 
                            
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                            The Aquarium
                            
                               
                                | Creature |  Name | Latin Name | Location | 
                               
                                |  | Opal Sponge | Porifera opalite | Lives only in salt water. | 
                               
                                |  | Orange Sponge | Porifera orangeboom | Lives only in salt water. | 
                               
                                |  | Gumin Grass | Poa guminum | Lives only in salt water. 
                                    Can only grow if there's no other Gumin Grass 
                                    or Orange Sponge growing nearby. | 
                               
                                |  | Aquamites | Aquatophagoides albia | They filter nutrients out 
                                    of the water. | 
                               
                                |  | Wyst | Cluelesseus officiusous | They filter nutrients out 
                                    of the water. | 
                               
                                |  | Angel Fish | Gillium gillium | Eats the seeds of the Orange 
                                    Sponge as well as those of the Opal Sponge 
                                    and Gumin Grass and eats Wysts too. | 
                               
                                |  | Clown Fish | Premnas hilariousis | Eats wysts and seeds of the 
                                    Opal Sponge, of the Orange Sponge and of Gumin 
                                    Grass. | 
                               
                                |  | Handlefish | Ficious tobiniuos aquatonicus | Eats the seeds of the Orange 
                                    Sponge as well as those of the Opal Sponge 
                                    and Gumin Grass and eats Wysts too. | 
                               
                                |  | Neon Fish | Hyphessobrycon creaturelabiani | Eats the seeds of the Orange 
                                    Sponge as well as those of the Opal Sponge 
                                    and Gumin Grass and eats Wysts too. | 
                               
                                |  | Cuttlefish | Sushi hazardous | Eats Wysts and shows colour 
                                    change when annoyed. | 
                               
                                |  | Nudibranch | Rockinium silveria | Eats Wysts and Aquamites but 
                                    seeds of the Gumin Grass too. | 
                               
                                |  | Rainbow Sharkling | Odontaspis spectrumian | Although it looks harmless 
                                    showing those nice colours it devours all 
                                    sorts of fish. | 
                               
                                |  | Man-O-War | Medus chappie ferociousia | Eats mainly fishes. | 
                            
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                             Why do some breeds die 
                              out, some don't?
                            Did you wonder, why some breeds, such 
                              as the stickletrout die out, but some which depend 
                              on them in the food chain (like the kingfisher) 
                              don't die out? I know that the ecology system is 
                              only a model in the Creatures game, but I wanted 
                              to know anyway. So I wrote to Creaturelabs, asking 
                              that question. And I got an answer! I also put up 
                              a few hints and tips to some of the dying out problems:
                             1. There are some "long living" 
                              breeds on the ship which simply don't die out. Means 
                              all those which don't die out even when their food 
                              recource is really scarce. To these breeds the following 
                              belong to: Kingfisher, Gosh Hawk, Uglee, Piranhas 
                              and a few more. Smart explanation....:-).
                             2. As for the stickletrout: you have 
                              to make sure that their food resource, the larveas 
                              of the dragonfly are always around. If there aren't 
                              any more in the terrarium, produce some by means 
                              of the seed bank. Those dragonflies will lay their 
                              eggs in the pond, the larvaes will hatch and (some) 
                              get eaten by the stickletrout. It's a bit of a chore 
                              to maintain a steady stickletrout population, don't 
                              know for how long you want to go on with this... 
                              there is also an agent, which helps in producing 
                              food constantly for the stickletrout. You can download 
                              "Fish 
                              food" here.
                            3. The Aquarium is easier. I put up 
                              a fish monitoring device to make sure fishes and 
                              food resources for them won't die out so fast. I 
                              connected the monitoring machine with a movable 
                              seed bank which recharges automatically after being 
                              emptied. The whole thing looks like this:
                            Both machines can be found in the 
                              ship. If you want to have more of these machines 
                              you can either inject some more or duplicate them 
                              by means of the replicator on the bridge. But still 
                              you have to monitor what those machines are doing, 
                              you might have to switch the machine to monitor 
                              other breeds to maintain a steady population of 
                              all breeds under water. So this solution is not 
                              fully automated...
                            4. Similar case for the desert terrarium. 
                              To keep Gnarlers alive in the desert, you have to 
                              make the vulcano erupt and throw stones in the terrarium 
                              which are needed by the Gnarlers as food supply. 
                              To make sure the vulcano erupts regularely I put 
                              up another combination of machines you can find 
                              in the ship:
                            This combination works from left to 
                              right: The first machine to the left gives a constant 
                              pulsing signal (don't forget to switch it on!), 
                              the next machine to it's right (connected to the 
                              first one) counts the signals the first machine 
                              is giving. After having recieved two signals of 
                              the first machine it will emit also one signal to 
                              the third machine connected to it. This machine 
                              counts 15 signals coming from the second machine 
                              and if that happened, it gives a signal to the vulcano 
                              to erupt. A bit complicated, that combination, I 
                              know, but it makes sure, the vulcano doesn't erupt 
                              all the time, there is a certain delay. If you think 
                              that's still to fast or maybe to slow then simply 
                              adjust the counters to the desired value!
                            You can also take the whole installation 
                              to produce a constant supply of ballon bugs for 
                              the meerks (my favorite breed!!) by connecting it 
                              to the seed bank. Unfortunately the seed bank will 
                              run out of energy, so you have to make sure, there's 
                              always enough bioenergy for sustaining all the needs 
                              of the ship! (only in C3 standalone, DS always has 
                              enough bioenergy!) (thanks to Lisa for the tip)
                            Looks like the whole ship needs your 
                              care and attention, not only the norns! That can 
                              keep you quite busy... 
                            I don't want to forget to mention 
                              a special agent/creature that should care for the 
                              ship's ecology. It's "Gaia" from Lis Morris 
                              (site not available any more). I didn't try it out 
                              so far. Gaia isn't just a "classic" agent, 
                              it's more, it's even a creature which can be spliced 
                              with other creatures! Although some results looked 
                              more scaring than good.... I don't know if this 
                              agent really cares for the ship, I heard more negative 
                              reports like slowing down the game and not really 
                              fulfilling the purpose it was tought to be made 
                              for. But there's another tool from Lis Morris worth 
                              a try, it's called "Spaceship 
                              Repair Tool" and it should balance the 
                              ecology of the ship. 
                            And another tip: If your hoppities 
                              multiply like crazy, most of the time it's due to 
                              too much food (especially fruits) laying around, 
                              e.g. from automated food vendors. If you want to 
                              get rid of that hoppity infestation, download the 
                              dragon 
                              from Darcie. 
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