The Peacock mantis shrimp is the gangster of all crustations. There are a couple of
different types of these beautiful but dangerous shrimp, The Muhammad Ali
Smashing kind and the Spearing mantis shrimp.
The Mantis shrimp is a very aggressive curious, fast and mean predator.
First let’s talk about the smashing mantis shrimp and their hunting techniques;
imagine Rocky Balboa on steroids because this shrimp may be little compared to
us but his spring loaded punch can hit with the same force as a 22 calibre
bullet which has been measured at 23m per second. The Smashing mantis shrimp is
a very proactive hunter chasing down its food (other hard bodied crustations)
and beating them to death before eating them, even if their mighty punch misses
the target the force is enough to create what are known as cavitation bubbles
in the water which will knock their poor opponent out.
The Spearing mantis shrimp on the other hand is more of a stealth predator waiting just inside one of his complex labyrinth of homes for a soft shelled crustation to cruise past before sticking his fast spear like weapon straight through its prey for his personal
shiskabab.
Not only are they the best boxers in the ocean but they can take a punch as
well. Their body is made up of an extremely strong mesh work of amazingly dense
hydroxyapatite, in a nutshell they have the body amour that would give the
terminator a run for his money, and it is so strong that it is being looked
into by scientists to potentially be used in body armour.
The eyesight of the mantis shrimp is incredible. Far better than human sight,
in fact it is not only the best sight compared to any ocean dwelling creature
but all land based animals as well. They have up to 16 different photoreceptors
compared to our 4 they also pick up motion very well along with ultraviolent
and polarized light.
They are the ultimate pepping tom, as cool as it would be to say but
unfortunately superman’s x-ray vision is beyond the mantis shrimps limits.
No matter how you look at the Peacock mantis shrimp there is no dought that
this creature is one of the coolest most interesting animals on the planet and
we are lucky enough to have one living on our very own Hmas Brisbane, so next
time you are diving the wreck be aware that their maybe a little Rocky Balboa
cross terminator cross superman watching your every move.