FOOD



Food bits can easily be detected in the Pond - they are those green dots scattered randomly about.  Food is capable of reproducing, but in a much simpler way than the swimmers.  Food bits periodically send off invisible seeds which land somewhere in the pond and appear as new green dots.  A cluster of food bits, if left on its own long enough, will eventually spread outward and fill a large area of the pond.  



The Source of Energy...

Food bits are the source of all energy in the Pond, and swimmers get all of their energy from them.  Since swimmers have so much important work to do (looking for mates, pursuing them, foraging, competing for food bits, or just flailing about aimlessly) they never sleep or take summer vacations.  As a result, they are constantly burning off energy, and so they find themselves getting hungry frequently.  



...with the exception of those loser swimmers who just lie there, barely moving.  They don't burn off energy - you could say they're energy efficient.  They just happen to not do anything all their lives.  



Adding and Erasing Food...

You can affect the abundance or scarcity of food by adding or erasing food bits.  Two buttons in the tools area with green icons (numbers 2 and 3) allow you to do these things.  The maximum food population is 1000.  Once you've added this many food bits, no more can be added until some swimmers eat and bring the food population down again.  