mantis shrimp goodness

so anthony and i FINALLY found out what kind of crustacean we ate in china. we've been looking online for quite a while and ended up getting a good idea of what is was from a marine life book at borders. a little more online searching and voila!

MANTIS SHRIMP.



let me profess: anthony was incredibly brave. he was amazing. he actually reached for the shrimp thing before i did and ended up showing me the proper way to eat it: twist off the head, then peel back the shells and eat the meat on the inside - just the tail. the same way lobster is red, mantis shrimp is purple. it was so tasty! these babies were easily 6 inches long.

apparently they are wicked fast and can actually cause people to have fingers amputated. they may also need to be kept in specially made aquariums because they can punch through glass. the force of their "smashing appendages" is slightly less than a .22 caliber bullet.

impressive!

(image taken by james fatherree - see more about mantis shrimp @ http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-03/jf/feature/)