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View Full Version : 11 inch mantis shrimp!!!!

Saltliquid
03/02/2009, 04:34 AM
Hi all.
A couple of us from the aandtsociety had a day off today and decided to have a snorkel.
Little did I know that I was going to be apart of a horror movie.
I was just going backwards and forwards from the bottom in around twenty eight feet of water in an area where I would normally find a sea horse or two on the sponges there, but instead I found a massive mantis shrimp digging for something (maybe a crab).

I took a short film of it and before I could get ready to take a better one it came up at me as I had gotten a bit to close, so I swam up and it turned back so I got the blunt edge of the knife quickly under it to carefully coax it up to the shallows and it got one jab in through my glove before I let it go , which was fair enough considering what I was making it do.

The second short film is of swimming with a mantis shrimp (that I assume is a rarity) as it tries for another spiking.
http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv146/AandTpics/mantis/
Tangalong
03/02/2009, 04:58 AM
Thanks for sharing...couldn't see all due to slow dial-up. You might post this on the Mantis forum... I know they would love it !! That's an unusually big Mantis...have to look up type. I have a Scyllarus baby...only about 3 inches. Love them !!!
faze07hd
03/02/2009, 05:59 AM
wow!!!!!!!!!
snorvich
03/02/2009, 06:00 AM
That size is not all that uncommon in the wild. They are gorgeous creatures and highly interesting to watch.
Tangalong
03/02/2009, 08:12 AM
It's a spearer isn't it Snorvich? Do you know what type? I was trying to match it up on Dr. Roy's list earlier. It looks like Zebra or a couple of others on the list but I couldn't see any other details on the video except the coloring.
snorvich
03/02/2009, 09:04 AM
Although I have done a LOT of diving in that area, I have never seen that species of Mantis. Gorgeous though. I think it is NOT a spearer based on the evidence provided, which is brief. I LOVE mantis shrimp and used to play with them and photograph them frequently. They are highly fastidious creatures and keep their home/burrow meticulously clean.
fufu
03/02/2009, 10:21 AM
Very pretty...good enough to eat!
justinl
03/02/2009, 10:51 AM
that one is Lysiosquillina maculata. a spearer.
snorvich
03/02/2009, 11:34 AM
Thanks. Mantis Shrimp are not my area of expertise; I do find them fascinating however.
BuddhaKiss
03/02/2009, 11:39 AM
looks like a spearer, they usually burrow in the sand
Tangalong
03/02/2009, 02:37 PM
Dang...you mean I was right ?
mflamb
03/02/2009, 08:03 PM
http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv146/AandTpics/mantis/_mantis-.jpg

WOW!!!