Keeping Tamed Icthyosaurs Alive?

[Brass Buckles]

There were three icthyosaurs in a relatively protected cove, shallow enough that it basically didn't have any issue with megalodons. So, I tamed all three, put food in their inventories, disabled following, and left them all on "neutral."

A few in-game days later, after making sure that they still had food etc., I get a message that one of them was killed by a megalodon. Then another one. I don't know how the shark got to them--the water is, as I said, too shallow there for megalodons to normally go there. They don't spawn there (they did a few updates back, but then the spawning behavior was changed--I don't think they can spawn in water that shallow and they ordinarily can't swim into it either).

Icthy #3 was much higher level. I never got the message that it died... but found both of the others dead on the beach. On. The. Beach. Not beaching-deaths, though, since a megalodon got them, but... it didn't eat them for some reason? Too shallow? Maybe it knocked them over there when it attacked?

In any case I don't know if the third one is alive or dead. I never got a message about it. Since it was higher level than the other two its survival chances were better. But, every single one of them vanished from the little cove, including the presumed survivor. I have no idea where that last one is, if it's still alive. I went for a swim trying to find it, but I had no luck.

Long story short, if I go about taming another one, what can I do to keep it safe from sharks? Or is there anything I can do?

Should I just build underwater fencing once more icthyosaurs spawn there and hope that I don't get sharks spawning inside of the cove too? Would that even be worth it? Can they travel through dino gates?

[Brass Buckles]

I don't play PVP, this was singleplayer.

[Pope]

They can fit in the dino gate, so just make a small pen with a dino gate and put them inside.

[Myrkana]

we have a pen with a ate for our water dinos, very firstthing we did when we tamed them. We built it in a small lake inland with a path to the ocean,.

[krawll]

making an underwater pen is a good idea , and you could of course tame one or two megalodons to protect your dolphins lol . Personaly i've never wasted my time taming those dolphins specificaly because they're easy prey. I have two Megalodons , well one of them is my friend's and one of them is mine but still , they did get attacked by other sharks many times and they always win their fights .

This one time , i forgot to put my shark on passive and as i was off of my shark to harvest an oil node, 5 sharks came and as soon as one of them bit me , my shark went nuts and started going in circles and biting all the ennemy sharks , and he won . He killed all other sharks on his own but of course it took him slightly too long and i drowned before i could get back on him to resurface .

All i'm saying here is that Sharks rock and i do not see any reason to go for a puny little dolphin when you can get something much much better .

But yeah , if you're still gonna tame dolphins , then definatly build him an underwater pen and make sure the walls do stick out of the water at least a little bit .

[Myrkana]

Originally posted by krawll:

making an underwater pen is a good idea , and you could of course tame one or two megalodons to protect your dolphins lol . Personaly i've never wasted my time taming those dolphins specificaly because they're easy prey. I have two Megalodons , well one of them is my friend's and one of them is mine but still , they did get attacked by other sharks many times and they always win their fights .

This one time , i forgot to put my shark on passive and as i was off of my shark to harvest an oil node, 5 sharks came and as soon as one of them bit me , my shark went nuts and started going in circles and biting all the ennemy sharks , and he won . He killed all other sharks on his own but of course it took him slightly too long and i drowned before i could get back on him to resurface .

All i'm saying here is that Sharks rock and i do not see any reason to go for a puny little dolphin when you can get something much much better .

But yeah , if you're still gonna tame dolphins , then definatly build him an underwater pen and make sure the walls do stick out of the water at least a little bit .

the dolphins are MUCH faster than shark by default :o I can swim circles around the sharks with even a low level dolphin

[BBC2SNIPER1]

Originally posted by Brass Buckles:

I don't play PVP, this was singleplayer.

If on neutral a mega probaly got really close and swam away thus they died or got lost at sea

[tariandeath]

Originally posted by krawll:

making an underwater pen is a good idea , and you could of course tame one or two megalodons to protect your dolphins lol . Personaly i've never wasted my time taming those dolphins specificaly because they're easy prey. I have two Megalodons , well one of them is my friend's and one of them is mine but still , they did get attacked by other sharks many times and they always win their fights .

This one time , i forgot to put my shark on passive and as i was off of my shark to harvest an oil node, 5 sharks came and as soon as one of them bit me , my shark went nuts and started going in circles and biting all the ennemy sharks , and he won . He killed all other sharks on his own but of course it took him slightly too long and i drowned before i could get back on him to resurface .

All i'm saying here is that Sharks rock and i do not see any reason to go for a puny little dolphin when you can get something much much better .

But yeah , if you're still gonna tame dolphins , then definatly build him an underwater pen and make sure the walls do stick out of the water at least a little bit .

Sharks are beasts yes, but they won't ever reach the speeds of the itchy if you spec them right.

[Brass Buckles]

Originally posted by BBC2SNIPER1:

Originally posted by Brass Buckles:

I don't play PVP, this was singleplayer.

If on neutral a mega probaly got really close and swam away thus they died or got lost at sea

Yes, I figured that. They had to have fought with it or they wouldn't have left their little area (they were close to shore, in shallow water... still no clue how a megalodon got there...).

I like the icthys for their speed, but if they die so easily I need to either A) make sure to only tame high level ones, or B) not tame them at all because they are too easily lost. First one I tamed I actually had saddled. And it and the saddle were, of course, eaten. So I didn't tame any more until these three in their cove. Clearly, I am an irresponsible icthy owner.

[Armos]

Contrary to what others have said, Megalodons cannot fit through just any dino gate, but only behemoth gates. It would also make sense that sharks can't spawn near a player structure, so cordening off a certain area, (such as making an underwater pen) would be extremely beneficial.

[Tantalus]

I'd also say build a pen and make sure it sticks up out of the water. As for what happened to your third ichthy, if it's SP and you're sure you never got a message, then he's still alive. You might not find him again, but he's still alive.

I tamed two ichthys when they first came out and saddled one. The other got killed, but the first one I rode around on for a while, then set him to neutral and enabled wandering because I was basically done with him. Three or four days later, I happened to spot his nametag from the beach, swimming around alive and well. I've lost land dinos too, given them up for dead and then by pure luck, found them days later by getting close enough to spot their nametags.

[stunner]

The ichys could have followed a piranha out then got jumped by megas.