Shimmering Shrimp
Christina Priestner
Introduction
What is a delicious seafood that lives on the ocean floor? It is one of the two thousand species of shrimp. These sea creatures have a simple or intricate appearance, a delicious diet, and a particularly fast life cycle and reproduction from one to two years of age.
Shrimps Appearance
Shrimps appearance can range from very simple to many colors and an intricate body plan. The length can vary from millimeters to inches, more accurately sixty millimeters to eight to nine inches. Picture this, a nine inch, green, blue, and orange leopard Peacock Mantis Shrimp trudging through the ocean floor seeking crabs and gastropods. Their smash is as fast and as strong as a bullet, which can kill a human being. These organisms have five pairs of walking legs and five pairs of swimming legs known as swimmerets located on their thorax. Along with that it has a hard, thin, smooth, almost transparent exoskeleton. They have a tail fin made up of three parts, the uropod, telson, and the uropod again, this makes up the tail fin. Also these underwater creatures have two sensory segmented antennae and compound eyes. The compound eyes can vary in colors, for example the Peacock Mantis Shrimp has blue compound eyes. I remember that when I was eight years old my little brother ate a shrimps tail fin and its compound eyes. Now he’s more careful with what he eats especially shrimp. The shrimp is an invertebrate, which means they don’t have a backbone. Lastly the tasty or revolting animal has three pairs of maxillipeds especially for feeding and eating.
Shrimps Diet
Shrimp have a diet like no other fish in the sea. The sea creatures are omnivorous which means that they eat both plants and animals. Shrimp eat plankton, tiny fish, along with algae, also they like to feed on different types of bivalves, gastropods, and crustaceans. Many plant particles are eaten by shrimp. The tiny specimen is sly when it comes to smashing, stunning, or snatching it’s prey because when it comes to food the shrimp is a machine. The hard exoskeleton on a shrimp makes it look invisible on the ocean floor. Fun fact the shrimp has the fastest strike in the world which can injure or can kill a human being. Another kind of species called Pistol Shrimp stuns it’s prey by snapping it’s pinchers, another one stuns it’s prey by making a noise with it’s claws. The last shrimp obtains it’s prey by smashing down on it and that smash is stronger and faster than a bullet.
Shrimps Life Cycle and Reproduction
The life cycle and reproduction of a shrimp is a fast system. Shrimp only live up to one to two years and they usually spend half of their life learning to do things such as hunting other fish. With that my organism mates and reproduces sexually. Once the male fertilizes the eggs the female can lay them. On the other hand female shrimp can lay as many as one million eggs and they only take about two weeks for all of them to hatch. Plus the eggs the mother lays are attached to the mothers swimming legs so she wouldn’t lose one. Even if the mother lays over one million eggs they all fit on her swimmerets. In addition these tiny floating organisms have many predators that vary from a shark to a bird. Once shrimp are born they sink to the floor of the water source where the tiny plankton like organisms will stay for the rest of their life. Some species of shrimp are very small and because of their size they are a component of zooplankton. As the specimen develops into adulthood they often shed their skin.
Closing
Did you know these majestic underwater creatures inhabit all waters from ocean to lake? Well, a shrimp has it all, a different appearance, a delicious diet (for the shrimp), and an interesting life cycle and reproduction. Shrimp is an animal that is usually only recognized as food, but they have a few surprises.
Think Tank
Quiz Time!
Haiku
Shrimp taste good at dinner
but some shrimp are lean, mean predators
Smashes, faster than a bullet
Shrimp smashing through the ocean
Looking for its next victim of prey
Finally a nice tasty meal
Go Fish!
Diorama!
Chefs Corner
Pavlova
For the pavlova
2 tsp vinegar, any type
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cornflour
4 large egg whites
100g light muscovado sugar
100g golden caster sugar
25g hazelnuts
For the topping
600g strawberries
3 tbsp cassis (blackcurrant liquer)
568ml carton double cream
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 140C. Line a baking sheet with non-stick parchment paper.
Meringue
Start to blend vinegar, vanilla, and cornflour to a paste. Next whisk the egg whites. Then whisk in the sugar, adding in the paste you already made until a nice meringue is formed.
Spread it out on a 20cm round pan, swirl the knife to make peaks. Scatter nuts(if you like) and bake for about 1 hour.
Take your strawberries and stir in the cassis. Whip it softly, cut each strawberry in half and put them in the cream.
top 40 foods history of the pavlova.