Vinagime
The Vinagime, much like a giant clam, depends on algae-like symbionts for much of its energy. Its Rainbowhedron symbionts are hosted within microscopic pockets inside its stomach, which are themselves concentrated in pulpy flaps. During the day, it everts its stomach like a sock, using a system of water and air pockets for the hydraulic feat. Its “farmed” symbionts receive sunlight, nutrients, and a virtually predator-free existence, and the Vinagime intermittently digests the contents of its pockets when they are overflowing with Rainbowtestas.
If attacked, it tucks in its eversion-tongue and briefly spurts out water. Further harassment makes it clasp its fins onto the sides of its body and slowly lie down on the seabed. Its primary defense is simply tasting bad: it has a stronger taste of alcohol than before, along with lime flavor-like chemicals. In case predators do rip off chunks of its body, it is able to regenerate any part of itself but its stomach.
Its photoreceptors (the row above the fins) are bigger than its ancestor's, allowing it to discriminate light levels more finely. Its upper row of fins have shrunk, and its lower row have degenerated into nothing more than long, shingle-like structures which channel water out from its lower vents. In its adult stage, it practically never moves, only wiggling its tail to inch away if some object blocks its access to sunlight for a while.
Reproduction and Life Cycle
The Vinagime has long, almond-shaped reproductive organs, and reproduces mostly by ejecting mass numbers of clones from its vents. It reproduces sexually only under physiological stress, such as disease, cold, and injury. While its Lime Patch symbionts are practically harmless, they're evidently enough of a disease to trigger it to reproduce sexually slightly more often than its ancestor.
The larvae are 0.40 mm at "birth", and somewhat resemble its distant ancestor, Carpotesta luceremundare, but without lights. The transparent embryo-like larvae have no mouths, and survive only on a store of a bluish "yolk" within their bodies. For the brief period of time they spend in their free-swimming form, they swim towards chemicals emitted by established Vinagimes. (including alcohol) They then use their photoreceptors (not visible at this stage) to select a good, sunny spot, and rapidly metamorphose and gain a mouth.
It settles into a defined juvenile stage at roughly 3 mm, and spends most of this stage just getting bigger. This stage resembles a Vinagob, except for its dot-like photoreceptors, lack of lights, and shingle-like lower fins.The juvenile stage can still move, much like the Vinagob, although it rarely does so except to escape predators or if its light is blocked for a significant period of time. At roughly 1.6 cm, it settles into its more sedentary adult shape, with a heavier tail and everted stomach.
Symbiotes
The Vinagime uses Ribbon-Tailed Detritis to help it digest microbes, although it has fewer than usual due to farming Rainbowhedrons. Though its Ribbon-Tailed Detriti symbionts hunt microbes that get caught within its mucus, they can't digest Rainbowhedrons, due to their chitinous shells. Nitromethanians live sparsely under its stomach folds.
Like many Carpolantaians, the Vinagime hosts Bioluminafasma, virus-like microbes that inflict practically zero damage on their hosts. One species of Bioluminafasma, the "Lime Patch", is unique to Vinagimes. It reproduces, virus-like, in the gelatinous outer layer of the Vinagime's body, and then floats off to live as a harmless, free-floating detritivore.
At any given time, 30% of the population has some visible level of Lime Patch infection. The variety, the "lime biophantasma", is nothing special for a green Bioluminafasma. Sometimes they grow abundantly enough within its body to cloud one side of its upper body, making it a barely-translucent green color. At this point, its symbionts don't receive as much light as usual, reducing survival chances.
Lime Patches are very common: at at any one time, 30% of the Vinagime population has a visible Lime Patch infection. Still, they practically never cause significant harm. Very rarely, they occur in such numbers in the midsection as to render big patches of it cloudy and lime green, hiding the host's insides and somewhat hindering the host's "farming".
The Vinagime, due to its Ribbon-Tailed Detritis' production of alcohol and protective distasteful compounds, tastes like a weak lime cocktail. Oddly, Vinagimes with big Lime Patch infections have a stronger taste.