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This morning, i was enjoying a nice walk on the sea-side and I just thought: What about aquatic tyranids?

I have heard about the Fenrisian Kraken and how it is supposedly a descendant from the mighty tyranid kraken. But it is the only type of tyranid aquatic life-form I could think of.

Nevertheless, I suppose tyranids have other aquatic minions, for they are supposed to leave behind them only planets entirely devoid of life. Or do they leave Mr Fishy alone when they strip a planet clean of its resources?

What do you think about it? Are there any aquatic tyranids? If yes, how would they look like? What would they do to a planet's ecosystem?

They would adapt to the sea and then nom on the fishes then drink the water and leave...

purplefood wrote:They would adapt to the sea and then nom on the fishes then drink the water and leave...

Like an aquatic carnifex? And aquatic gaunts?

Laodamia wrote:

purplefood wrote:They would adapt to the sea and then nom on the fishes then drink the water and leave...

Like an aquatic carnifex? And aquatic gaunts?

Probably not the same looking but similar...

Could make for an awesome colorscheme/conversion. Tyrafins.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And they could fight the Carcharodons!!!

Sea Horse Trygon.

That idea alone deserves creation.

Chaos Lord Gir wrote:Sea Horse Trygon.

That idea alone deserves creation.

Genius...

Not my pic.

However, someone also has a swimming fex with fins on warpshadow, cant find it though since there are alot more galleries than i remember

Dur-dun, dur-dun, dur-dun, dun dun dun dun etc. I'm sure you'll never go in the water again....

I think I've heard them mentioned before in BL books before.

Would make sense they exist, don't see how else they'd drain biomass in an ocean unless rippers can swim long distances.

They don't need to swim at all. They drink the ocean, they drink it up!

Ya know I don't think that many aquatic Nid units would look that differant from ground units. I mean of course they would have adaptations to breath under water but think of crabs. Crabs can walk on land and underwater and I can't see it being much differant for Nids. Now some units would be differant like Gargoyles would have fins instead of wings, Trygons and such would be closer to sea serpents etc.

unless they come accross a sentient Aquatic race the Tyranids would probably just drain the ocean and have land based Nids slowely harvest the things left by the receeding water line.

a Sentient Aquatic race might result in aquatic biomorphs, but the nids could still just drain the ocean and nom what gets left high and dry.

The race dosen't have to be aquatic in order for the Nids to attack them. Alot of the 40k races can fight under water, there was a hole war between the SW and Tau under water neither of which are aquatic races.

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:Ya know I don't think that many aquatic Nid units would look that differant from ground units. I mean of course they would have adaptations to breath under water but think of crabs. Crabs can walk on land and underwater and I can't see it being much differant for Nids. Now some units would be differant like Gargoyles would have fins instead of wings, Trygons and such would be closer to sea serpents etc.

^This

Tyranids can survive in the vacuum of space, im sure they are fine underwater. (Not to mention their resemblance to crab's) However im sure that there are tyranid's dropped into water all the time, there are billions of them in a single planetary invasion. I don't think they would just sink and drown.

Laodamia wrote:This morning, i was enjoying a nice walk on the sea-side and I just thought: What about aquatic tyranids?

A very disturbing idea while looking into the great blue horizon. When I am looking at sea I imagine the life in the oceans, the vastness of sea, millions of creatures lining in it, the unexplored depths... But everyone has their own ideas, right?

What do you think about it? Are there any aquatic tyranids? If yes, how would they look like? What would they do to a planet's ecosystem?

There maybe some creatures, simply to kill any large ocean creatures before taking all the water. And to eradicate all of the sea life ( fish, crabs, snails... ), but we Humans are creatures that lives and fights on the land - so this idea is not so creative because we have nothing to fight in the ocean ( except maybe Marines, but they would be cursed under the grater pressure and their movement would be much slower ). And it is my opinion that, even if Tyanids have something like that , they deploy them only after they secure landmass - and that's not always the case in 40k galaxy.

Wasn't tyran a watery planet? The 'nids pretty much nom nom nommed that planet right up. So... anything can happen.

Brother Coa wrote:

Laodamia wrote:This morning, i was enjoying a nice walk on the sea-side and I just thought: What about aquatic tyranids?

A very disturbing idea while looking into the great blue horizon. When I am looking at sea I imagine the life in the oceans, the vastness of sea, millions of creatures lining in it, the unexplored depths... But everyone has their own ideas, right?

What do you think about it? Are there any aquatic tyranids? If yes, how would they look like? What would they do to a planet's ecosystem?

There maybe some creatures, simply to kill any large ocean creatures before taking all the water. And to eradicate all of the sea life ( fish, crabs, snails... ), but we Humans are creatures that lives and fights on the land - so this idea is not so creative because we have nothing to fight in the ocean ( except maybe Marines, but they would be cursed under the grater pressure and their movement would be much slower ). And it is my opinion that, even if Tyanids have something like that , they deploy them only after they secure landmass - and that's not always the case in 40k galaxy.

We must also realize that Tyranids do not think like we do. When we fight to defend a planet they view us as just another form of life. Not "oh ok thats a space marine with a bolter" everything is just more biomass. So the creatures in the sea are viewed the same way. So I wouldnt be surprised if there are Tyranids adapted for super fast swimming and killing things under-water, it's just that you want a Tyranid model adapted for surviving lasgun fire, not hunting whales

There are aquatic nids in one of the Blood Angel books, one of the last two sorry can't remember which think its the newest one. They are out of touch with the hive mind so have just devolved into an eco system.

There was a piece of fluff ages ago, cant recall when/where that said the Nids may have originally evolved from an aquatic environment. The theory went something like, that since their organisms were so big (bio ships, titans, large organisms etc) that a water environment could support their weight much better. The huge challenge for them was to get off that planet and into space where again the weight could be supported. Only when travelling through the void did they solidify their bipedal status.
Was something like that anway.

Brother Coa wrote:

Laodamia wrote:What do you think about it? Are there any aquatic tyranids? If yes, how would they look like? What would they do to a planet's ecosystem?

There maybe some creatures, simply to kill any large ocean creatures before taking all the water. And to eradicate all of the sea life ( fish, crabs, snails... ), but we Humans are creatures that lives and fights on the land - so this idea is not so creative because we have nothing to fight in the ocean ( except maybe Marines, but they would be cursed under the grater pressure and their movement would be much slower ).

Again there is an entire battle that takes place under water between the Space Wolves and Tau. And humanity is not the only faction in the 40k universe so other races inhabiting aquatic worlds would be a reason for Tyranids to adapt their units for aquatic combat.

I actually just had a Godzilla 2000 style image of Ork submersables engaging some kind of giant kraken underwater.

And it is my opinion that, even if Tyanids have something like that , they deploy them only after they secure landmass - and that's not always the case in 40k galaxy.

IF there is landmass on the planet.

xXSir MontyXx wrote:you want a Tyranid model adapted for surviving lasgun fire, not hunting whales

... and now I have an image of a Tyranid Captain Ahab ...

Grey Templar wrote:unless they come accross a sentient Aquatic race the Tyranids would probably just drain the ocean and have land based Nids slowely harvest the things left by the receeding water line.

a Sentient Aquatic race might result in aquatic biomorphs, but the nids could still just drain the ocean and nom what gets left high and dry.

This isn't true, as tyrannies consume all life before taking other resources they will have ripper swarms underwater. their is a piece of WD fluff that covered the fall of a planet to tyranids, it tells of how PDF aquatic units were destroyed by the invaders.

It's not hard to believe that the hive mind can produce biomorphs with gills

Brother Coa wrote:There maybe some creatures, simply to kill any large ocean creatures before taking all the water. And to eradicate all of the sea life ( fish, crabs, snails... ), but we Humans are creatures that lives and fights on the land - so this idea is not so creative because we have nothing to fight in the ocean ( except maybe Marines, but they would be cursed under the grater pressure and their movement would be much slower ). And it is my opinion that, even if Tyanids have something like that , they deploy them only after they secure landmass - and that's not always the case in 40k galaxy.

Nothing stopping Tyranids landing directly in water. Even normal Tyranids can swim underwater. Tyrans only land was a volcanic chain completely fortified by the Imperium, so the Tyranids landed in the ocean and attacked from the beaches.

Don't have the 'nid codex on hand atm, but I believe in the section talking about Kryptman's visit to Tyran, it describes footage of horrifying tyranid sea creatures captured by the base's holocams.

Some aquatic insect larvae are called nymphs.
Nereids are sea nymphs
Tyranereids makes so much sense!

albeit a terrible pun

Hive Fleet Nessie.

Could the deployment of creatures adapted to certain environments actualy show that the hive-mind thinks more about a planet than just "hey! FOOD!"

I'd say yes. My logic behind it:

Tyranid's use the DNA of the biological lifeforms on a planet.

It'd be easier and quicker to kill everything if you can swim in water.

Water activates a genetic sequence to use old aquatic-based DNA.

Tyranid's have fins.

Quicker nomnomnom.

With Earth like planets, the majority of life is found in oceans.