Mantis Shrimp

One of the best parts of my job is discovering animals I didn't know we had... take for example this fella...

The Mantis Shrimp! He is only about 5cm at the moment these can grow to 30cm! I do not know which species this one is, there are over 400 species of mantis shrimp- perhaps if I get a minute I can look through 400 descriptions and tell you but today isn't that day. 

So how could I not know about this little awesome guy? Easy; shrimps, urchins, crabs, mantis shrimps and all sorts come in on live rock. In the back we have quarantine tanks with lots of corals and lots of live rock, (the rocks aren't alive, it's the marine life that lives inside these rocks that give to its name). Just like in the oceans there are loads of animals yet to be discovered, the same can be said for our tanks! 

I know that hobbyists aren't so enthused if they see one of these little guys scuttling along in their tanks because they can be pests- eating the corals, burrowing through them and destroying them, eating the fish... maybe if we hadn't have managed to catch and isolate him I wouldn't be so enthused either.

The Mantis shrimp like many other species of the world is ill named, because it isn't a shrimp. Why isn't it a shrimp? Shrimps are in the order decapoda and mantis shrimps are in the order stomatopoda. Shrimps have 10 legs, mantis shrimps have 6 legs and a load of fin like appendages known as pleopods (shrimps have those too) and like a shrimp the mantis shrimp is a crustacean. But yeah, it's not a shrimp.

Let's have some awesome facts:

Mantis shrimps are either "smashers" or "spearers" depending on their "raptorial appendage" otherwise known as claws. This raptorial appendage is why they're called a "mantis" shrimp, because it's very similar to the grasping front legs of a preying mantis. 

The "smashers" claws have a hardened calcified "club" on the outer edge of their raptorial appendage which they can use to hammer, club or smash through their prey! Prey with hard-bodies like crabs.

The "spearers" have a row of spines along the outer edge of their raptorial appendage, these sharp spines can slash, stab and disembowel their prey. Prey with soft bodies like fish and shrimp.

I would go take a closer look at our mantis shrimp for science to see if hes a smasher or a spearer, but I've heard a smashers claw can go through glass! So it would have no trouble going through my finger. Ok, he might only be 5cm but I don't want to risk it.