His lawn: off it
November 28, 2014 5:20 PM   Subscribe

 
Obligatory.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:24 PM on November 28, 2014 [10 favorites]


Hoarders Beneath Europa's Seas...
A better trailer than the new Star Wars.
posted by artof.mulata at 5:35 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


requested spoiler alert: is this sad?
posted by A Terrible Llama at 5:41 PM on November 28, 2014


requested spoiler alert: is this sad? No

The shrimp has quite a collection going!
posted by JujuB at 5:43 PM on November 28, 2014


That looks like something Jim Henson might have come with. Those crazy frilly fish! Followed by the one that was clearly singing "La-la la la la!" as it swam by. So many characters!
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:59 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


is this sad?

One crab comes a cropper, but otherwise it's the to-ings and fro-ings of a houseproud crustacean who might make you feel guilty about all the home maintenance you've been putting off.
posted by sobarel at 6:01 PM on November 28, 2014 [20 favorites]


Yeah, the fish that swims by at 3:50 - that's a puppet, right?
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 6:14 PM on November 28, 2014


Mantis shrimp are scary animals. I kept wincing as I expected him to attack the photographer.
posted by winna at 6:16 PM on November 28, 2014


previously!
(also btw ;)
posted by kliuless at 6:19 PM on November 28, 2014 [5 favorites]


The comparison a lot of people make between shrimp and cockroaches really becomes apparent when you see them moving around in their natural environment.

Those eyes though ... wow. Are those false pupils or do they really have pupils that move around the surface of the eye like the needle of an Etch-A-Sketch?
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:28 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


False pupils. It's the same as with praying mantises.
posted by Noms_Tiem at 6:34 PM on November 28, 2014


Just wonderful. And for once I didn't go screaming for the mute button.
posted by mykescipark at 6:45 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Shrimpbob Cockroachpants.
posted by localroger at 6:59 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Shrimpbob Cockroachpants.

Have you ever eaten insects? I have.
Don't eat cockroaches because they are disgusting and unwholesome.
But grasshoppers, etc? Mighty tasty!
posted by Pudhoho at 7:31 PM on November 28, 2014


Gotta say, I'm pretty fond of shrimp...
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:47 PM on November 28, 2014


I am from Louisiana. Yes I eat crawfish. No I do not suck the heads, but the cockroachy part yummmmm.

Also, crawfish have this attitude. I had one decide one year that it was going to take over my garage. Really, it stood in the door of my garage and stood its ground like dude, this is my space I'm claiming it and get off my lawn. The fact that I outweighed it by a factor about 1,000 fazed it not at all. I did get it into a jar and to the back yard where I hope it built a more suitable kingdom. Fortunately for it boiling one crawfish just isn't worth the effort.
posted by localroger at 8:18 PM on November 28, 2014 [4 favorites]


I've been toying with the idea of getting one of these. We breed fish (seahorses, clowns, etc.) and we need a "disposal" fish to eat the fry that won't survive to adulthood.

We usually keep an angler for this, but a mantis could be a neat replacement.

It would be fun to have a fish that I'm actually a bit afraid of.
posted by quin at 8:34 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Me at 2:30:

ʘ︵ʘ
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:47 PM on November 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Hmmm I wonder what it ea....WAIT NEVERMIND.
posted by jimmythefish at 9:11 PM on November 28, 2014 [2 favorites]


Not sure whether this belongs on Animal Planet or HGTV.
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:07 PM on November 28, 2014 [2 favorites]


It seems pretty intelligent. Nothing like a cockroach either.
posted by Nevin at 10:59 PM on November 28, 2014


Seriously, that crab emerged from the sand like a badass, marched right up to the shrimp's door, and promptly became the appetizer du jour.

Mantis shrimp gon' FUCK YOU UP!
posted by briank at 6:38 AM on November 29, 2014


a houseproud crustacean who might make you feel guilty about all the home maintenance you've been putting off.

You read my mind! When it was pushing that giant rock with all its legs a-whirring in the sand, I was like, "Man, and I can't even be bothered to recaulk the bathtub."
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:54 AM on November 29, 2014 [4 favorites]


Anyone know how come I keep getting a "Becauses of its privacy settings, this video is unavailable" where the video should be?
posted by KingEdRa at 7:04 AM on November 29, 2014


I've been toying with the idea of getting one of these.
According to the link in cjorgensen's comment at the top of the thread, they can break aquarium glass.
posted by Flunkie at 7:35 AM on November 29, 2014


I am not a paleontologist but it looks to me like the mantis shrimp is about the closest extant relative to the trilobite. When I google on (mantis, shrimp, trilobite) the first hit is to a U California Riverside news blurb about a materials science professor working on mantis shrimp skeletons and they have a video with the blurb showing a mantis shrimp in a home aquarium.

I wonder if many people keep these creatures in their home aquariums.
posted by bukvich at 7:36 AM on November 29, 2014


Am I really supposed to believe that the little thing ate a lion fish?!?!?
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 9:46 AM on November 29, 2014


Am I really supposed to believe that the little thing ate a lion fish?!?!?

Mantis shrimp basically have superpowers - they're the little dudes who can punch hard enough to generate sonoluminescence, and have some of the most sophisticated eyes to ever exist anywhere.

If that guy wanted to eat a lion fish, I'm sure the lion fish was toast.

(I've seen either those or a close relative at an aquarium - they could tell when I was pointing a camera at them, right through the glass, and they'd scatter every time. Didn't work when I pointed - they could specifically tell when I was aiming a shiny tool their way.)
posted by mordax at 10:19 AM on November 29, 2014


Very interesting. I learned something today!
posted by virginialady at 11:26 AM on November 29, 2014


[DETERMINED SHRIMP NOISES]
posted by The Whelk at 11:39 AM on November 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


they can break aquarium glass.

Yep. In smaller tanks, where you will often find these guys, because they don't always play nice with other fish, they get their own space. And smaller tanks have thinner glass, so it's theoretically possible for them to crack it if it's a clubber or smasher (as opposed to a spearer). I've never actually seen it happen though. But I did find a video of a mantis smashing through a wineglass to get at a crab.

They're also known as thumb-splitters by more than a few divers I've talked to.
posted by quin at 12:09 PM on November 29, 2014


I hate my cocktail-straw-sized net connection. Saved for later when I have an actual connection that can load more than 6 seconds at a time.
posted by Lexica at 2:55 PM on November 29, 2014


FPP link won't play for me "due to its privacy settings", but I found this on YouTube.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 10:41 PM on November 29, 2014


bukvich: Its actually related to Anomalocaris, one of the first predators out there (says David Attenborough)
posted by thandal at 6:33 PM on November 30, 2014


bukvich, thandal, as far as I know mantis shrimp are (currently thought to be) only distantly related to trilobites and anomalocaridids. They're all part of (or in the case of the anomalocaridids, directly adjacent to) the phylum of arthropods, but that group includes 80% of described living animal species, and who knows how many of the extinct ones.

The Attenborough doc isn't trying to suggest that Anomalocaris and mantis shrimp are closely/directly related, but that they have a similar body plan which makes the mantis shrimp a great visual aid for showing what an animal that's been extinct for hundreds of millions of years might have looked like. Since it came out, though, new research has revealed that anomalocaridids wasn't quite as tough as previously suggested.

Anyway! Mantis shrimp are among my favorite marine beasties, and I would totally want one for a pet except that AFAIK they can only be acquired wild-caught. I did get to see some on a dive a few years ago and strike that off my bucket list. They're just as fun to watch in person as the video suggests, and no, no concerns about my thumbs.
posted by bettafish at 12:48 PM on December 1, 2014


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