Unidan, AKA Ben Eisenkop, is an ecosystem ecologist who first rose to fame (infamy?) on Reddit by popping up in posts across the site, answering any queries and concepts pertaining to biology and ecology. Eisenkop will be a columnist for Upvoted, where he’ll be spotlighting a new creature every week.

As the holidays approach, I figure I should pick a bizarre beast for this week that looks holiday-themed, so I decided to choose an animal that is colored red and white like a candy cane. I also know how frustrating the holidays can be when you end up spending time arguing with your family, so among the candy-cane group, I chose an animal who can produce concussive blasts capable of instantly killing. Thusly, I give to you the pistol shrimp.

Pistol shrimp are a diverse family (Alpheidae) of marine crustaceans comprising over 1,000 different species, mainly residing in warm ocean environments, though a select few inhabit colder waters. Like some other shrimp, many pistol shrimp have symbiotic relationships with gobies. Since the shrimp have poor eyesight, they rely on the goby as a lookout for any potential predators, in return, the goby relies on the shrimp to excavate and maintain a burrow that can accommodate both of them should trouble arise!

Here’s a video of a symbiotic pair doing just that:

While pistol shrimp have this relationship, too, they do have a bit of an edge in addition. Instead of the usual pincers that shrimp possess, they are equipped with specialized claws which have a locking mechanism separating two parts of the claw like a hammer to its anvil. When the locking mechanism releases, the “hammer” slams into the “anvil” of the claw and produces what is known as a cavitation bubble. These bubbles are made by essentially shearing water away with incredible force and pressure, creating a void where the water once was. In the ocean, when the water rushes back to fill the void, it comes back with insane force and pressure, causing massive shockwave and temperature spikes. In fact, the temperature spikes so high that it actually briefly approaches the surface temperature of the sun.

Yes, you read that correctly, the temperature of the sun. Over 5,000 Kelvin.

The sound created from the pistol shrimp has been measured by several different groups of scientists. For comparison, a vacuum cleaner might be around 80 dB, a chainsaw right next to your face is around 110 dB and a firecracker directly next to your ear is about 150 dB. A little higher than that is a jet engine aimed directly into your ear drum, which is around where those scientists found the pistol shrimp.

Luckily, the sound lasts less than a millisecond, but there are many claims from oceanographers that the constant din from the pistol shrimp in the water interferes with all kinds of measurements. There are even anecdotal claims from sailors that pistol shrimp noise can prevent them from sleeping!

These powerful blasts are used by the shrimp for hunting. Their sonic weapon is capable of instantly killing smaller prey, but can even stun larger fish or be used as a tool to crack open hard shells like a hammer. Here’s a video of a pistol shrimp (with some very gratuitous gunshot sound effects) in action: