Peacock Mantis Shrimp

I've never heard about these until recently when I read a swedish magazine called illustrated science. It's such an amazing animal or whatever it is. It has a hammer with the speed of a .22 bullet, so that's really strong.

Look at this video, it cuts off the arm of a crabO_O

salt water fish keepers call em thumb splitters. guess why.

we had a red mantis in our old office tank. this thing was huge. it was impossible to catch and it kept killing fish and other tank critters.

they use the snapping claw to dig thru rock and create tunnels for themselves. they've also been known to dig thru rock and accidentally crack the glass tank wall, creating watery hell for the owner.

they are, apparently, a cool pet to house alone in a tank and they are, supposedly, trainable.

everything2.com...

they are cool as hell but they are hardly mythical.

Well I didn't really know any other place to put this, is there a more suitable section for this?:/

Oh and by the way, like you said, the big sized peacock shrimps can crush the thickest glass on a big fish tank. So it's dangerous to have a big one in a personal tank(:

Here's a sweet video where it gets threatened by a octopus. It looks freaky when it stands up like that and folds out all his claws.



[edit on 10-3-2008 by ZikhaN]

reply to post by ZikhaN


Mantis shrimps are so cool...their behavior is insane.
That looks suspiciously like a Blue Ringed octopus he's messin with. The Blue Ringed is a killer. They pack a neurotoxin that they can "puff" through the water. They don't even have to bite a shrimp or a crab. A few puffs into the water near the shrimp, and he'll be dead in seconds.
(I'm something of an amateur marine biologist. Emphasize on amateur)

dunno how i ended up here but its cool to read about these here even on a top secret forum!

in my 55g reef tank its hard to actually see them since they come out at night if ever which is good cause my bare hands are in the tank rearranging rock, aquacultured coral, etc almost daily even after lights out.

but the sound is so loud!