The waters around Crescent Bay island are teeming with a wide variety of ocean life. This is thanks due to the incredibly colorful and expansive coral reefs that fill both of the island's large bays. Here the coral is unusual because it is extremely hardy, grows fast, and recovers fast from being damaged. the island's beaches are surrounded by fringing reefs, while the seafloor of the shallow seas in the two bays are nearly entirely covered with complex coral formations. Many species inhabit the coral reefs, from familiar species such as triggerfish, angelfish, and parrotfish, to even normally prehistoric and fantasy species such as pycnodonts, ammonites, icthyosaurs, jenny hannivers, and smaller sea monsters. Because of this, Spiritstar kingdom has a rich ocean based economy, as traders from other islands often flock to the town for the rare and high quality fish, coral, and other miscellaneous items manufactured from the sea stocked in it's shops and vendors. This artwork depicts some of the modern species that inhabits these reefs.

Waverunner Sheepshead: Found either solitary or in schools around the entire island, the Waverunner Sheepshead is a rather toothy fish under the family Sparidae that is one of the most common fish in the reef. They are named so due to their tendency to chase and swim behind waves near the shore. Their uncanny, human-like teeth makes short work of oysters, crustaceans, and clams which make up a large portion of it's diet. They keep the population of Coqina Oysters, a rather colorful looking bivalve, in check from overly competing with coral reefs, as Coqina oysters often form oysters reefs in patches amongst coral communities. Waverunner Sheepshead are a tasty fish favored by fishermen due to its sustainable, high population, delicious flavor, and are easy to catch provided that you have reinforced hooks that are resistant to their teeth.

Sunflame Butterflyfish: This chaetodont can be seen maneuvering between coral branches with agile, graceful movements, plucking at coral polyps which make up a part of their diet. They are also known to nibble at sponges, algae and shrimp when the opportunity hits. Their ocellus, or false eyespot, tricks predators by making them believe that their tail end is their head, while their actual eyes are hidden by a dark band on their face, that way when a predator attacks, they will instinctively go for the ocellus, which provides the Sunflame Butterflyfish an easy escape by darting off in the opposite direction, catching their pursuer off guard. Their ocellus has evolved even further than being a simple decoy, as the cyan colored ring in the spot is bioluminescent, creating a bright, neon teal glow that allows the fish to find conspecifics during the night. It also serves as a secondary purpose at night, as it mimic's the bioluminescent eye of the Coral Sentinel, keeping predators at bay. These fish arent suitable for eating, and are more like curiosities and pets than food. Minato Mushi sometimes sells them as pets at his market stall among all of his other findings. However mages are known to harvest these fish for their magic, which helps create magical flames that are resistant to water.

Coral Sentinel Triggerfish: A large and semi-agressive 3 foot long fish of the Balistes genus. The Coral Sentinel is mostly found in the waters of Constellation cove, though it can be found rarely around the entire island. It makes it's home on the reefs by pruning and munching away at coral until it creates a roundish clearcut depression in the reef devoid of coral, Essentially making a pit with a sandy bottom surrounded by walls of reef. This reef pit is it's territory, and for the female's, her nest. Males are sexually dimorphic compared to the females not by color, but by having long strands on their dorsal and cadual fins. The male usually keeps a harem of females around it's reefpit, with each female having a small pit of their own around the males. The male will protect these females from rival males, who will either attempt to mate with the females, or challenge the defending male into a fight to win over both the females as well as the defender's reef pit. The triggerfish is Bioluminescent, in which the Cyan markings, like the Sunflame Butterflyfish, also glow a neon teal at night. However they can control when their biolights light up or not. Most of the time they are turned off at night, However when a predator comes near their reef pit, their eyes, along with the cyan spots around the eyes, light up. These spots are meant to compliment the eye and signal to the aggressor that they are being watched. During fights with rival males, all of it's cyan markings on it's body and fins glow at once, creating a spectacular light show display meant to intimidate it's competitor as they circle around eachother and charge at eachother. The Coral Sentinel get's its name due to it's temperamental disposition. When outside of it's reef pit foraging, the triggerfish is calm, curious, and sometimes friendly. However when an intruder tresspasses in it's territory, which comprises the reef pit as well as a small aread around it, the Coral Sentinel will agressively charge at them, biting with it's strong jaws until either the threat leaves or is killed. They will only allow fish smaller than themselves, such as damselfish and gobies, to enter their territories unless they are guarding eggs. To humans and other races, the attacks are never fatal, though their bites are strong and very painful. Both sexes are territorial, and even smaller, younger individuals of this fish are agressive once they have constructed a reef pit of their own. One time while swimming to catch fish, Minato mushi accidentally swam into a Coral Sentinel's reef pit, prompting the fish to bite him on the buttcheek. The resulting bite caused Minato to jump completely out of the water in shock, with the fish still hanging on by it's mouth. Because of it's territorial disposition, the Coral Sentinel has few predators, and mostly competes with member's of it's own kind. The fish is rarely eaten, as most islanders of crescent bay island think its bad luck to eat such a beautiful and proud fish.

Tidepool Chromis: A small species of damselfish, the Tidepool Chromis get's its name from it's frequency to inhabit tidepools along the beaches of Crescent Bay island, though despite this they can still be found in the seas themselves schooling among the reefs. Their diets include plankton, bits of sponge, marine worms, algae, and small crustaceans like mysid shrimps. They are a diurnal species, swimming together amongst the coral by day, and retiring to sleep in crevices during the night to avoid nocturnal predators. The use of their spotted patterns arent known, but it is thought to either break up their outline to camouflage themselves or to recognize individuals by their differing spots in schools. The fish is too small to be eaten by people, but they are a major prey item for the predators of the reef. They do make great pets as they are easy to take care of, coral friendly, and are community fish. Minato Mushi sells them at a cheap price at his stall to tourists, foreigners, and aquarium hobbyists.

Artist's note: Im a huge fish person, so i wanted to test my artistic abilities by drawing some marine fish. The hardest part for my was finding a way to make uniform scales across the body. Luckily one of my friends showed me how and now it feels so easy (but tedious) to do. I want to expand upon Starrelya's world lore by drawing more species, islands, and people that inhabit that realm so that it appears to be a much more livelier place. Hopefully once i get better i can produce artwork at a faster rate that can cover all of these projects.