Mantis shrimp
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Striped mantis shrimp
Gonodactylus chiragra
About
The striped mantis shrimp packs one of the fastest strikes in the sea into a body barely bigger than a finger, smashing open shells with a single blow.
- Length
- 10.5 cm
- Depth
- up to 30 m
How to tell it apart
Mantis shrimp are either spearers or smashers; look for the enlarged, club-like second leg folded under this one's body to tell it apart from the spear-legged kind.
Appearance
This is a small, stocky shrimp-like animal, growing to about 10.5cm. Males are brown to dark green, while females run from grey-green to white. Its large, stalked eyes sit on independently moving stalks and can look almost too big for its head.
Habitat
It lives in shallow water on reef flats and tidal flats across the western Indo-Pacific, down to about 30m. It shelters in rock and coral crevices or old burrows, usually made by other animals, rather than digging its own from scratch.
Did you know?
When it fights over a burrow, this mantis shrimp circles its rival and aims its blows squarely at the head, rather than striking wherever it can land a hit.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
