Sea Monkey

The Sea Monkey is a medium-sized, intelligent fauna species with a habit of stealing interesting objects.

Appearance
The Sea Monkey is predominantly light purple in color, with a larger blue stripe going down from it's head to it's forearm, and a smaller yellow stripe stretching down to its tail. It has a pair of squat, two-fingered forearms, each finger ending with a round, yellow pad. The underside of the body is pale gray and has a long fin that ends with a notch before the tail. Above this fin on the dorsal side are a pair of more rounded fins with a small triangular dorsal fin in front of them. There are two slit-shaped openings on the body, one on the chest and another on the lower flank. A pair of antenna-like protrusions are seen on the lower jaw, colored purple and tipped with blue. Adorning the top of the head is a large crest that is able to fold in and out. The crest is split into four sections and is mostly pale blue and edged with white.

Behavior
The Sea Monkey is passive, and spends most of its time swimming aimlessly. However, if the player is holding a tool, it will approach them and attempt to steal the item. The Sea Monkey can steal every tool from the player. It can also pick up dropped Equipment, vehicle upgrades, and metals. If the item is stolen successfully, it will flee. The stolen item can be retrieved from the Sea Monkey's hands, or a nearby nest if the player has left the vicinity. If the player leaves the vicinity of a Sea Monkey that has stolen an object, it will store the object in a nearby Sea Monkey Nest. The object can be retrieved by breaking open the roof of the nest with a Survival Knife and picking up the stolen items. Beacons that are stored in a nest will also still operate.

The Sea Monkey will also steal some Deployables from the players hand, including the Seaglide and Beacons, and will also steal deployed Beacons. Stolen beacons will continue to operate while held or stored in a nest. If a Sea Monkey steals a Flashlight from the player, it will remain lit.

Sea Monkeys can also steal certain dropped electronics, including Batteries, Power Cells, Ion Batteries, Ion Power Cells, and undepleted Reactor Rods. They will also take Camera Drones, even while the player is operating one. If the player controls the Camera Drone while it is stored in a nest, they can smash the roof open by repeatedly slamming the drone into the roof.

In addition to the above, Sea Monkeys will pick up dropped metals, including Copper Ore, Gold, Nickel Ore, and Silver Ore. It will not take ores directly from outcrops, but it can steal Nickel Ore that has been untouched, as they are not in outcrops. This only occurs in the Lilypad Islands biome as the Arctic Kelp Caves do not contain Nickel Ore.

Sea Monkeys are afraid of Flares; if the player is holding one, it will turn and swim away from the player at a moderately faster pace. However, if a Flare is in a Supply Box or floating freely while unlit, they can still take it.

Design
The fingers of the Sea Monkey are inspired by those of several tree frog species, sharing the toe pads seen on many of them. The head of the creature is inspired by that of the beluga whale, whilst the lower body is somewhat similar in appearance to the body of the black ghost knifefish.

Gallery
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Trivia

 * In addition to normal Below Zero items that the Sea Monkey can steal, it can also take Kyanite, Cyclops and Seamoth upgrades, the cut Uranium, Bioscanner, and Hardened Blade, the Radiation Helmet, and Metal Salvage, none of which are present in Below Zero.
 * Sea Monkeys are currently the only creatures in both Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero shown to build nests for their eggs; all other fauna eggs are found scattered on the ground.
 * Despite it not being present in Subnautica: Below Zero, Sea Monkeys can steal Metal Salvage from the player's hand.
 * The original concept of the Sea Monkey was a relative to the Crabsquid, the Pygmy Crabsquid (also known as a "Grabsquid")