Mantis shrimp

[Slave to the Grind]

I constantly find mantis shrimp in the guts of the bass I catch around LBI (backwaters). Has anyone out there ever dredged them, netted them, etc and used them for bait? It would seem to me the bass would go nuts over them.

[Striper101]

From what I have read about them, thier claws are like razors and can do some real damage to you. The artical I read said nothing about a spine that they can shoot out. I'll keep researching them to find out more info.
I'm sure someone else will post on this too!


Mantis Shrimp:
Mantis shrimp are stomatopod crustaceans that live in tropical and subtropical seas. They are fearsome predators with remarkable vision and a lightning-fast striking appendages. They come in two varieties - smashers and spearers. As the names imply, the smashers have blunt-tipped claws used to stun prey, while the spearers have sharp tips. Some varieties are small, just a few centimeters long, but others can grow up to 30 cm (12 in.).

[Ugly Mug 2]

Pay your health insurance! If your gonna try a live one!

[Slave to the Grind]

I ain't skeerd....
I think most of those shrimp that people fear aren't the ones indiginous to our waters....I've seen the ones around here close up, they seem kind of feeble in the claw dept. Unlike the thumbsplitters of the tropics. Or the ones that are known to crack fish tanks...makes you appreciate how the lining of a bass can digest just about anything...they're like Billygoats.

[TheProf]

Buddy of mine pulled a huge one out of a Striper he caught a few weeks back. I was wondering the same thing Slave.

[uppy jr]

Saw one on the inside of an ice breaker on a bridge last year. It was about 7 or 8 inches long and looked prehistoric. Put my rod tip down to see what it was and "bam" it lashed out at that tip and would have caused some serious damage if it were a finger or hand.......

[LilFisherman]

I caught one last year in Oyster Creek while fishing for winter flounder in december. It was hanging on to the side of a bulkhead. I was holding it but it didnt cut me. Guess it liked the warm water in there???

[B Daley]

I have seen on fist hand what a mantis shrimp can
do be very carful lighting speed one guy was crabbing and one was in his trap went to pick it
up and ended up with 12 stiches in his hand

[BUCKTAIL WILLIE]

I hooked one this spring about 7" long ,went to take it off the hook when the damn thing slashed me across the top of the hand.Bleed like a stuffed pig but didn't need stitches,sore as hell for a few days

[chunking]

Caught two a few years ago and put them right in my two hundred gallon aquarium. Figured the fish would make short work of them. Within a few days almost all the fish were dead. The big one and I mean big (If I remember right it was fourteen inches long.) the smaller one was around seven inches. The big one was the killer. Bluefish, tog, seabass and blueclaws were torn apart.

Called the Camden aquarium and they came for the big one. The guy said they should only reach twelve inches max. Was amazed at the size of this guy. A few weeks later I got a call that it had killed everything in the tank where they had it on display. They moved it to a tank where they kept troubled fish that didn't get along with anything else. The Mantis killed them all.

Don't mess with the bad guys. I guess stripers can take them by inhailing them and crushing them quickly. Find a lot in large flounder.

A mantis is powerfull only if it has enough room to cock it's killer front leggs to strike. Once in the mouth of a fish and there isn't a lot of room or time to strike back.

It's like BIGGESTJACK when he eats cats. Once he gets the leggs in the cat is defenseless. :D

[fishkiller2000]

Dont mess with the mantis, you'll just end up getting hurt :( . Eels and spots work just as well evidently ;)

[clutch]

holy crap, that makes me skerred!!! I'll never swim in the bay again!!

[Hand's B&T]

Berkley Gulp shrimp is a good artifical representing a mantis. They have been working in the back and in rips. Thanks Tim

[dusky]

Slashing, ripping, breaking, destroying ?

New video "Shrimp's Gone Wild".

BUBBA would be proud !!

I have never encountered a live Mantis and by the sound of it I hope never to meet one. Have seen many a Mantis dead in a Bass stomach. The question one might ask is how does a Bass subdue the killer Mantis from ripping his stomach apart ?

The Mantis has one of the quickest striking movements in the world.

[Lew'n aint easy]

They're not all that dangerous. Yes if you aren't paying attention they can get you. I'd say they are about as deadly as a blue claw. My friend gets alot of them in his eel pots. He says he is going to save some for me to use as bait but he hasn't come through for me yet.

[BIGGESTJACK]

Originally posted by Lew'n aint easy:
They're not all that dangerous. Yes if you aren't paying attention they can get you. I'd say they are about as deadly as a blue claw. My friend gets alot of them in his eel pots. He says he is going to save some for me to use as bait but he hasn't come through for me yet. ARE THEY GOOD TO EAT?

[Lew'n aint easy]

you never know till you try. I'd eat one, they look like little lobster. I'll remind my buddy to save me some next time he gets them and I'll cook one up and give a full report, the rest I'll try as bait.

[Captn Joe]

Chunking,
I always enjoy reading about how tough these buggers are. I imagine, when in the back of a Stripers throat they are getting crushed a bit before swallowed. Once in the stomach there is no room for the Shrimp to extend its striking mandibles.
Captn Joe

[Jacko]

Here ya go!





Home > Animals and Plants > Crabs and Shellfish >Mantis Shrimp

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Species of interest blue crab American oyster horseshoe crab hard clam fiddler crab mantis shrimp Atlantic oyster drill hermit crab Atlantic ribbed musselblack-fingered mud crab



terrestrial
carapace



Background

The mantis shrimp, or Squilla empusa, is not, in fact, a shrimp. It belongs to the subphylum Crustacea and the class Malacostraca, which is the largest class of crustaceans, containing more than 20,000 species. Malacostraca is tremendously diverse and includes both marine and terrestrial species, including isopods (sowbugs), krill, mantis shrimp, shrimp, crabs and crayfish.

The mantis shrimp is properly neither a shrimp nor a terrestrial "mantis," but bears characteristics common to both. It has a shrimplike, segmented abdomen and carapace, swimmerets ("paddling" appendages beneath the abdomen), antennae, and large clawlike appendages, which are formed like jackknives, and which resemble both in action and at rest the appendages of a garden variety praying mantis. It is similarly aggressive in overpowering its prey.

The common mantis shrimp usually inhabits the middle- to high-salinity waters of the lower Bay, and grows to a length of 8 to 10 inches. Often called the "shrimp snapper" by watermen and respected for the swift slashing of its claws, which can slice a shrimp or fish in two (and lacerate a hand), the mantis shrimp is also edible and has a reputation for being very tasty. Similar species are considered an important sea food outside the Western Hemisphere.

The common mantis has a somewhat flattened, shrimplike body that may be translucent tinged with pale green, with dark green-outlined segments. Its stalked eyes are an extraordinary emerald green color and contain many more photo receptors than the human eye. Its large maxillipeds, or powerful spearing claws, are used to spear and slice its prey at high speed. The velocity of this strike is said to be nearly 10 meters per second, which means that the mantis shrimp can spear and cut swiftly moving fish as well as slower moving species on the bottom. (Some species have been known to break double-paned aquarium glass with a strike of their powerful claws.)

In the Bay, mantis shrimp dig burrows with several openings in the soft muddy substrate, and are nocturnal hunters, making them difficult to glimpse. Occasionally one can find molted shells washed up on the beach. They are as likely to frequent deep waters?some species swim to depths of 500 feet?as the Bay's intertidal shallows. They hunt rapaciously for live prey, including crabs, fishes, shrimp and other mantis shrimp. Because they remain in their burrows by day and are considered "shy" creatures?despite their reputation for behaving aggressively?little is known about the life cycle or mating habits of the mantis shrimp that are so familiar to the watermen of the lower Bay.

Other Sites of Interest:
Mantis shrimp - Bay Link
The Lurker's Guide to Stomatopods
Ask Fish - njstriper.com



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Mantis photo courtesy: Raymond T. Bauer / Professor of Biology / Research Website: http://www.ucs.usl.edu/~rtb6933

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Last modified: 12/11/03

[phillyfishing]

anyone got a pic of one

[Ryan D.]

http://web.fccj.org/~dbyres/mantis/squilla3.jpg

[Striper101]

Originally posted by BIGGESTJACK:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Lew'n aint easy:
They're not all that dangerous. Yes if you aren't paying attention they can get you. I'd say they are about as deadly as a blue claw. My friend gets alot of them in his eel pots. He says he is going to save some for me to use as bait but he hasn't come through for me yet. ARE THEY GOOD TO EAT? </font>[/QUOTE]BJ,
From what I have read, they are good to eat!

[Slave to the Grind]

All the ones I've seen in the guts of bass have been pristine. I guess they're tough until they meet the acid of the bass gut. Thanks for all the info though.