u/Eagle_King11

Venom in Wings of Fire is pretty interesting. In this post, I’m going to look at how RainWing venom functions. This was originally going to be a post about all the kinds of venom in Wings of Fire, but the RainWing part stretched on a while. Before we start, here’s my previous post: What Happens When a Firescale and a Frostscale Touch + Why Peril Is a Firescale

First, we’ll outline what RainWing venom DOES before we figure out what it is(You can skip this chapter if you aren’t that interested; this part isn’t essential). RainWing venom is a corrosive black liquid spat from the upper fangs of a RainWing. It eats away at any biological substance rapidly, causing intense pain when used on living creatures. It is rapidly fatal when entering the bloodstream or eyes, and some dragons appear to be more vulnerable than others(Queen Scarlet surviving a faceshot and Fjord dying almost instantly). It is neutralized when two relatives’ venom mixes, and accelerated when unrelated dragons mix their venom. This is an odd series of traits for a biological substance. First, why does the venom only corrode biological substances? This is fairly easy to clarify. The venom is not an acid, but rather composed of biological enzymes and toxins. First, some possible candidates: Hemotoxins and cytotoxins, found in many snakes, cause cell death and destroy blood vessels, and can cause horrible pain. However, they don’t lead to the kind of damage done by RainWing venom. Many spiders and assassin bugs have highly potent enzymes designed to liquify tissues. This is also not exactly what RainWing venom does. 

When we look at what RainWing venom does, essentially ‘melting’ tissue, it reveals that the closest analog isn’t actually venom. It’s actually digestive enzymes. Some starfish digest food externally by pushing their stomach outside of their mouth and directly over or into their prey, then secreting enzymes which liquify the food. RainWing venom appears to be a very fast-acting equivalent, perhaps bundled with cytotoxins and/or hemotoxins. This also supports venom not being fatal when only on the scales, but deadly in the bloodstream or eyes. This venom in the bloodstream would corrode the blood vessels from the inside and cause extreme pain and internal bleeding. The venom would also then be carried throughout the body to vital organs, causing rapid death. The eyes are very fragile and have a very large amount of blood vessels, which explains fatality in the eyes. Scales are made almost entirely of keratin, which would be somewhat resistant to the venom and thus be destroyed much more slowly. The venom would penetrate gaps within the scales, destroying underlying tissue, causing the scales to sink, shift, deform, and corrode. This explains the ‘melted’ look many dragons hit by RainWing venom have. Surprisingly easy to explain!
Now the hard part. RainWing venom is neutralized when two relatives’ venom mixes, and accelerated when unrelated dragons mix their venom. Well, not that hard, because I’ve already thought about this in particular a lot, and already have a solution. First, let’s consider a possibility. Maybe similar venoms neutralize each other, and different venoms strengthen each other, with each RainWing having a different kind of venom? The problem with this is that it means that venom wouldn’t work, since the individual parts of each venom are identical. So we need something that neutralizes similar venom, speeds up differing venom, and is nonreactive with the same venom. Well, turns out this partially exists, in the form of DNA repair enzymes! They do nothing in the case of DNA being intact or if it’s damaged beyond recognition, but activate if it’s slightly damaged. RainWing venom most likely has a similar enzyme, which is inactive against exactly identical enzymes, reacts and neutralizes the venom faced with different enzymes, and reacts and speeds up the venom faced with wildly different enzymes(Let’s call this Enzyme A). Each RainWing must have a slightly different Enzyme A, and since the enzyme is probably genetic, closely related RainWings must have similar Enzyme As. By random chance, some barely related RainWings must have similar enzymes(which explains why Glory could neutralize Grandeur’s venom even though she probably wasn’t that closely related). This also means identical twins would have venom that does nothing when it contacts(this would be the best proof for this theory if we saw this in canon). 
So we’ve figured out RainWing venom! I’ll be making these on an alt now for convenience, and will create it sometime later. Feel free to make suggestions on what my next post should be about! I’ll be continuing a series about venom if no one suggests anything good.

I need to decide on strawberry or least/exclamation point rasboras for my 29g. I plan to keep the tank heavily planted, with a more open front. I have a colony of shrimp, and want to impact their breeding as little as possible as well. I also want to breed the rasboras at some point, and I have a ten gallon tank I can use for that. I have fairly hard tap water(gh 10-12), but can get RO water pretty easily. I plan to feed them live brine shrimp, live vinegar eels, and pellet food for the most part. Which rasbora would be better? I've narrowed it down to strawberries or exclamation points, but I think phoenixes might work too. Feedback would be appreciated.

I was originally planning on stocking my 29g with least rasboras, which I want to plant heavily. But I've found out they prefer open water. So, I'm considering getting chili rasboras instead. I also want to breed the fish, so will chilis work well? I have a shrimp colony too, and I don't want too many of them to be eaten.

I heard that gelatin can harm shrimp by affecting their molts, but I also heard that they can’t metabolize it, so it’s harmless.

I was originally planning on a school of least rasboras for my 29gallon tall, but I think they need a lot of open space, and I’m planning on keeping it very densely planted. So will they be okay, or should I reconsider? I want a small fish that can be bred relatively easily, leaves shrimp alone for the most part, and schools a lot.

I want to get least rasboras soon and also want to try breeding them. I've been looking at their tropical pellets. So, will one of their foods, along with brine shrimp to supplement, work well for that?

You discover that every piece of paper in your house has been painted black, and there are hundreds of lit candles everywhere. On closer examination, your beds have been stolen and all of your books have been erased and have 'BEWARE' written on each page.