Decapodian

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The Decapodians are a fictional race of humanoid, lobster-like aliens, who speak with a Yiddish accent, from the animated television show Futurama. The Decapodians are natives of the planet Decapod 10 (literally meaning "10-legged 10") that made contact with Earth in the 23rd century. The Decapodians found the Earth anchovy so delicious that they promptly ate it into extinction (as explained in "A Fishful of Dollars").

Although there have been several minor Decapodian characters on the show, the only main Decapodian is Doctor Zoidberg, the Planet Express doctor, who is good natured but has a poor understanding of human anatomy (and even less knowledge of human social behavior, a problem which seems more prominent in Zoidberg than in other Decapodians).

1 Biology and anatomy
2 Reproduction and life cycle
3 Clawplagh
4 Notes
5 References

Although little is known of Decapodian biology, it is known that the Decapodians have four hearts: In "Roswell That Ends Well", one of Dr. Zoidberg's hearts is removed. Later in "A Taste of Freedom," he says that "two of [his] three hearts are having attacks". Decapodians have many redundant internal organs and are able to survive both on dry land and deep underwater. They have a love for seafood and retain many features from their (likely) aquatic origins, including an ink sac, a gas bladder, and the ability to cough up colorful blue pearls following excessive consumption of dirt.^[1] Though fully grown Decapodians generally walk on two legs like a human, they are sometimes seen walking sideways (scuttling) like a crab. Decapodians are cold-blooded, as is their technology.^[2] Based on a datum from "Roswell That Ends Well", Decapodians do not employ any digestive mechanisms between their mouths and their first stomachs. This implies a relatively long digestive chain.

Decapodians are known to suffer from "fin rot", fin fungus, and internal parasites. The faces of adolescent Decapoidians also can be subject to barnacle infestation, similar to human acne.

Reproduction is seasonal. When males produce an excess of "male jelly" they become aggressive and violent. A hitherto hidden fin on their heads unfolds (similar to swordfish). The male engages in courtship displays on the beach to attract females. Love is unknown; the female chooses a male mate based on the strength of his displays. The actual reproductive act is a large, public group affair that is known as the "mating frenzy." After pairing, couples enter the water where the male releases his jelly into the cloacal vents of the female. It is portrayed in the "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" episode that both male and female Decapodians die almost immediately after reproducing, hence the lack of emphasis of love or even socio-economic status in their mating choices. As Dr. Zoidberg mentions his upbringing at some points, children apparently are raised by a third party, but the series gives no information on who the third party is, how they might be related to the offspring, or how they are selected; since Zoidberg is described as having had three parents, Norm, Sam and Sadie, presumably one of these parents raised him while the other two are his biological parents.

Despite its fatal nature, the reproductive act is viewed by Decapodians as "the greatest experience in life." As many elder Decapodians are shown throughout the series, it must be common for some Decapodians to remain celibate well past their prime mating age (the Monarch of Decapod 10 remains celibate to enforce his people's laws, though he himself later broke that rule and mated).

After fertilization, Decapodians have a complex life cycle, going through more than a half dozen distinct forms (possibly ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny) before maturing into a bipedal humanoid form (as shown in the "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" episode):

A coral-like mass from which multiple Decapodians bud off
A Hydra-like form
A starfish-like form
A spiny sea urchin-like form
A deep sea anglerfish-like form
A lamprey-like form
A large clam-like form
A trilobite-like form
A cuttlefish-like form
A hard-shelled bipedal humanoid form

In the episode "A Taste of Freedom", a young Zoidberg is shown as a small version of the adult form rather than any of the stages shown in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles". Since the episode "Amazon Women in the Mood" showed Zoidberg moulting, just like any other crustacean, presumably his species reaches the adult stage while still small and grows to full size after a series of moults. (Of course since the Decapodian Life Cycle is inconsistently represented throughout the series, usually taking whatever form is necessary to create a successful joke, it is probably an exercise in futility to attempt to organize it into a coherent process.)

The Decapodians have instituted the tradition of clawplagh. The relatively new part of this tradition (18 years old) is that once the challenge has been initiated, it must be finished. This is a fight to the death in a public arena to settle matters of honor, and also whether abbreviations count in Scrabble (Zoidberg maintains that they don't), or, more usually, for money. Weapons are allowed, but some Decapodians prefer to use their own claws, so that they can have the pleasure of cutting their enemies themselves. The combatant who guesses the animal the Monarch of Decapod 10 is thinking of has first choice of weapons. Dr. Zoidberg invoked clawplagh to challenge Fry for the hand of the beautiful Edna in Why Must I be a Crustacean in Love?.

Clawplagh is a parody of kalifee, a similar Vulcan tradition from Star Trek, and the fight scene in "Why Must I be a Crustacean in Love" is a parody of Kirk and Spock fighting in the "Amok Time" episode. Before the clawplagh, the famous musical underscore composed by Gerald Fried for the "Amok Time" fight scene is briefly heard as the Decapodian "national anthem." The name, however, is derived from the traditional Klingon phrase "Qapla'!" Literally translated, "Qapla'!" means "success."

In 3004, the Decapodians invaded Earth and briefly enslaved humanity, after being provoked by an Earth-forces attempt to storm the Decapodian Embassy in Washington D.C. and arrest Dr. Zoidberg (under sentence of death for eating an Earth flag), who had taken refuge there ("A Taste of Freedom").