Some surprising shrimp
The bandit lay waiting. He wasn’t very big, but he had a pistol cocked
and ready!
Suddenly, a fish appeared, swimming slowly past the bandit’s hiding
place. The bandit’s pistol went off with a loud crack! Stunned, the
fish began to sink. And the bandit—a tiny shrimp only two inches (5
centimeters) long— seized the fish and began to eat it!
The tiny crustacean called a pistol shrimp doesn’t actually shoot its
prey with a bullet. It has one very large claw, more than half as big as
the shrimp itself. It can cock this claw like an old-fashioned pistol.
When the shrimp snaps the two parts of its claw together, there is a
loud noise.
A pistol shrimp in a glass jar once broke the
jar when it fired its \”pistol”! The loud noise that a pistol shrimp’s
claw makes stuns the fish or other creature that the shrimp is
\”shooting.” This gives the shrimp a moment in which to seize its prey.
The pistol shrimp also uses its weapon to defend itself from attackers.
Chances are that you’ve eaten shrimp in a salad or had fried shrimp.
They weren’t pistol shrimp, however. They were probably what are known
as common shrimp. These little animals are about three inches (7.5 cm)
long. They look like tiny lobsters.
Common shrimp hatch out of eggs that are laid at sea. The young shrimp
move toward shore and take up life at the bottom of bays and river
mouths. They hide in burrows in the mud or sand during the day. At night
they come
out to feed on worms, small clams and snails, and tiny crustaceans like
themselves.
There are a great many kinds of shrimp. Some of them, like the pistol
shrimp, do interesting and unusual things.
For example, one kind of shrimp is a \”tailor.” This shrimp actually
sews seaweed together to make a home for itself! The seaweed is a kind
that has many thin strands. The strands grow close together, forming a
kind of mat.
The shrimp lies on its back and pulls the edges of a mat around itself.
Using one of its legs as a needle, it stitches the edges of the mat
together with \”threads” of seaweed. It can make four inches (10 cm) of
tube in about ten minutes. A tube as much as a foot (30 cm) long becomes
a home for a male and female shrimp.
Some kinds of shrimp clean fish for a living. They really do!
These shrimp are about two inches (5 cm) long. They live among the
tentacles of animals called sea anemones. Sea anemones look like bunches
of flowers growing on the sea bottom. When a fish comes near, a shrimp
waves its long antennae to attract attention. The fish stops and the
shrimp climbs onto it.
Most fish have many tiny worms and other creatures attached to their
body. These itch and irritate the fish. The little shrimp crawls over
the fish, eating all the tiny creatures it can find. Thus the fish is
cleaned of its unwelcome riders and the shrimp gets a meal!
Most shrimp are gray, brown, white, or pink. But some are bright red,
blue, green, or yellow. Others have stripes. And some kinds of shrimp
are colored so beautifully they are called \”painted shrimp.”
