Mantis Shrimp

Photo: Jenny · © all rights reserved

Peacock mantis shrimp inhabit rubble patches around Hon Tai's reef base, their iridescent bodies and compound eyes capable of perceiving 16 types of color receptors — compared to the human three — making them the most visually sophisticated animals known. Their club-like appendages strike with the acceleration of a bullet, generating cavitation bubbles capable of cracking clamshells and aquarium glass, and each strike is strong enough to be felt as a pressure wave by divers nearby. They are voracious predators of mollusks, crabs, and small fish, and their burrow-defending territorial behavior makes them fascinating subjects for patient underwater observation.