Mantis Shrimp

The Mantis Shrimp (or ‘Stomatopod’) is a small, aggressive marine Crustacean, that inhabit tropical and subtropical waters, this one was around 7 cm long when fully out of its burrow.

They are beautiful and in colour from browns to rainbow colour, but also deadly, able to club prey with the force of a bullet, or spike them with their sharp claws.

They are members of the order Stomatopoda and taxonomy group Crustacea, which are hard-shelled animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and more.