naisho
Forum Disorders M.D.,Ph.D
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One of the interesting sea invertebrates.
Did you know there is a type of shrimp dubbed as "Pistol Shrimp" as a nickname?
Care to figure out why?
The latin classification for it is Alpheidae. I don't know the meaning of words behind the name, if someone can enlighten us on that.
Why are these shrimp special? Well, they're like your usual shrimp of course.
Except for the "handgun". Yes.. as the name implies, they have a mechanism similar to a firearm.
Between those regular claws it is capable of producing an ultrasonic sound.
Notes say that if this was to be compared with all the organisms in the ocean, this is even louder than a whale. It's been measured to around ~200dB at one meter, even if you can't hear it surely you can feel it vibrate.
You can observe a youtube of this in slow-mo and in detailed action here.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKPrGxB1Kzc"]YouTube - Pistol Shrimp[/ame]
The yellow+red is a regular shrimp as you will see it has no claws.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKPrGxB1Kzc"]YouTube - Pistol Shrimp[/ame]
The yellow+red is a regular shrimp as you will see it has no claws.
The speed of the "bullet" which is actually an air bubble, is said to go around 60mph (100km/h for those outside of USA), and the temperature enclosed in the bubble is up to 9000° Celsius. It usually shocks most opponents, or kills smaller ones. Some of these shrimp are so powerful, they can even fight and kill crabs!
check one out here: [ame]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5219672612991804355[/ame]
Another interesting thing about the pistol shrimp is that they can make friends with another species of animal in the sea. Only one specific type of animal though. That fish is called the Goby. Gobies come in all different colors, shape, and sizes. But it doesn't matter to the shrimp, they usually get friendly with any kind.
This mutual kind of friendship has a technical term, it's called symbiosis. The Goby acts as a security guard / watchman while the shrimp provides it with food. The Goby stays very close to the burrow of the shrimp. The shrimp has bad eyes, so what it does is every time it comes out of the home, it feels the Goby to know if everything is OK. If the Goby is not there or seems startled, the shrimp knows that something is wrong.
You can eat them if you want but most people who have one don't. I think they cost around ~$10-$50+ range depending on what species and type you buy. The aquarium has to be decently sized, over double digit gallons, plus needs natural habitat setting for the shrimp because it likes to burrow in the pure ocean sand.
More about them at wiki:
Alpheidae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia