Ecology VIII

The pistol shrimp is one of the loudest animals on the planet. With the larger of its asymmetric claws it creates a clap similar to when jets break the sound barrier, except louder. The claws disperse water so fast that a vacuum forms just in fron t of the claw. When the water comes back together a clap travelling sixty miles per hour is created, and for a fraction of a second the temperature at the vacuum location soars to over eight-thousand degrees fahrenheit. The pistol shrimp uses this shock wave to stun and kill the small fish that it uses for food.

The pistol shrimp lives in tropical waters. It lives on the bottom of the ocean where there is an abundance of life and other resources it needs to survive, like in coral reefs, oyster reefs, seagrasses, and the Florida mangrove forests. The pistol shrimp is typically between one and one-fourth to one and three-fourths inches long. They are a translucent green color, with red/orange claws and a blue/purple tail.

The prey of the pistol shrimp are anything that is small enough to be killed by their cavitation bubble's percussion blast. Pistol shrimp are not picky and will eat whatever they come across. Sometimes this includes other shrimp, small fish, and crabs. They however will not kill goby fish, Pistol shrimp have formed a symbiotic relationship with gobies, who allow the shrimp to live in their homes with them.

Pistol shrimp are not well known by the multitudes, but they should be. They make excellent aquarium pets and are really cool. They are not expensive, you can feed them anything, and are a cool conversation starter. Who wouldn't want to own one of the loudest things known to mankind?

Sources:

http://i25.tinypic.com/709pis.jpg

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Tiger-pistol-shrimp

http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=201

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1085398/Deadly-pistol-shrimp-stuns-prey-sound-loud-Concorde-UK-waters.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpheidae