I took the snap back in May on our favorite stretch of beach. What you see is a goby and a pistol shrimp in a symbiotic relationship. At the time I took this, I had NO idea what was going on here. All I knew was I saw these two critters sharing a single hole. I was feeding the critters in my salt tank the other day, and I needed to feed my mantis shrimp. A mantis shrimp, or stomatopod, is a very funny looking little critter. Ours is quite aggressive. When I stuck the piece of fish near his hole, he swims up to the piece of meat and begins furiously grabbing at it making a very loud clicking noise. I could feel the force of 'the click' through the bamboo skewer to which I had attached the bit of fish. Needless to say, I was surprised! But, a mystery had been solved. This little guy was the strange loud 'click' I would sometimes hear late a night!
I wanted to know more about my mantis, so I did a bit of reading. I found this website:
http://www.mantisshrimps.co.uk/articles/pistol.php It talks about mantis shrimp and explains the mystery of the snap from back in May.
And, my mantis shrimp may explain my disappearing hermit crabs. I know a bit about marine biology, but I did not know that some stromatopods feed on other inverts like herms. At least our mantis is now staying happy with his fish and squid.
Here's a link to an article giving an excellent general overview of stromatopods:
http://www.coralscience.org/home/content/view/235/180/lang,english/
Peace.
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