The Jetocaris is a passive, cave-dwelling crustacean in Subnautica 2. Its databank entry records the generated name Tripod phrontiscaris, the three-legged caring crab, a nod to the parenting behavior that sets it apart from most other small fauna in the game. It is indifferent to divers and safe to approach.
Overview
Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
Class | Crustacean |
Disposition | Passive |
Reported habitat | Caves around the Observatory, Anemone Hills, the Plateaus, the Power Plant, and the Overgrown Ruins |
Notable trait | Adults carry juveniles on their carapace |
Appearance
The deep-blue, crab-like body stands on three walking legs. Four black triangular mandibles close over the mouth to form a protective enclosure for two long, flexible white feeding tongues, and a pair of small clawed forelimbs grooms them. The bright green eyes sit on short stalks. The fourth segment of each leg is enlarged and houses a valved water thruster, which lets the Jetocaris hover in place and swim by jet propulsion.
Behavior
Jetocaris live in caves, alone or in small groups of adults and juveniles. Adults claw at the seabed to prepare it, then push their feeding tongues into the sand in search of food. Juveniles are skittish where the adults are calm: when a diver approaches, the young rapidly climb onto the carapace of a nearby adult and let it carry them, and they rarely travel far under their own power.
The databank entry notes that the feeding tongues can regenerate, and reads that ability as a warning sign: the Jetocaris can regrow its nerves, and something in the seabed likes to bite them.