1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 347: Second only to Rat Spot

The reason why peacock mantis shrimps have such a flashy name is naturally because they look a bit like mantises, but their colorful colors are almost comparable to peacocks.

With a green carapace, red legs and a blue head, it is definitely the most colorful of all shrimps.

"Ma Gebi, it's just a big shrimp, how can you have so much strength?" Deng Zhaocai rubbed the red back of his hand, still muttering.

"Don't you see how fast it moves!" Liang Ziqiang replied while dodging two of them.

There are probably very few creatures in the ocean that can move faster than mantis shrimp.

When the peacock mantis shrimp's two claws punch, the speed is at least as fast as a bullet, and the movement and sound all happen within milliseconds.

Because it is so fast, the water near its jaw will quickly boil, causing the water to suddenly vaporize, and then there will be a small local explosion with a sharp crackling sound, followed by a strong shock wave.

Its rapid movement sometimes creates flashes in the water as cavitation bubbles form in the water.

It is precisely because of the extremely fast speed that the claws can produce a striking force of dozens of kilograms and sometimes close to a hundred kilograms. Of course, now that it has left the water environment and is on the deck, the force should be reduced.

It seems that there are quite a few peacock mantis shrimps mixed in this time. After a while, several crew members were beaten up. While feeling the pain, they finally realized that these shrimps can beat people up so hard that they become injured. This is definitely not a joke.

However, just as they tactfully stepped aside, two dogs squatting a little further away noticed this side and immediately became very curious about the colorful prawns.

Duobao and Hulu ran towards the fish sorting area one after the other with great interest.

As a result, when it was only one meter away from the edge of the fish pile, Duobao was shot in the back, neck and belly at the same time, and it was shaking so much that it could not walk.

The last blow even shattered its head, like a violent blow from a slap. This time, Duobao was really stunned, and he stopped a meter away, shaking his head, as if trying to get rid of the dizziness.

Hulu was not much better than it. Its round belly and neck were hit by several mantis shrimps one after another. It screamed in pain and grievance, and flapped its front fins and turned in circles on the ground.

Liang Ziqiang saw that the two stupid dogs would be beaten to death if they stayed like that, so he hurried over and kicked them a few times. Finally, he managed to kick them back a few meters away before they died.

Duobao still hadn't recovered and made a sound like he was about to die. You could tell he felt very aggrieved. He had been roaming the sea for several months and had never suffered any loss. Who knew he would be bullied so badly by a few shrimps today?
Hulu looked up at Liang Ziqiang pitifully, then glanced at the shrimps fearfully, not daring to go any further.

After a while, Duobao recovered and returned to his original cowardly and fierce nature, barking at the shrimps from a distance. He only moved his mouth and refused to move.

"Never mind, let's not sort out the fish in this net for now, let's continue lowering the nets and start the second round!" Liang Ziqiang decided.

Temporarily, there were so many mantis shrimps that they couldn't get close to the fish pile. The easiest way was to wait for a while. There was no water on the deck, and the sun was scorching. After a while, these mantis shrimps that looked lively would naturally wilt.

At that time, I would go over and sort the fish and shrimps, and pick up all the mantis shrimps on the ground and put them into a basket.

Apparently, his method was right. About an hour into the second round of trawling, the ferocious mantis shrimps on the deck had become quiet and there was basically no movement.

Deng Zhaocai and his colleagues quickly sorted the fish and shrimp and transported them to the cold storage compartment.

Since there are rare peacock mantis shrimps in the nearby area, Liang Ziqiang certainly wants to try his luck again. The second round of operations is still carried out in the water area just now.

As a result, in addition to small fish and shrimps, there were still some mantis shrimps, but the number had been greatly reduced compared to the previous round, with only a dozen or twenty scattered ones.

On the third day of the ship's operation in the deep sea, Duobao couldn't bear it any longer. He became restless and wanted to go into the water to play.

Deng Zhaocai and his friends saw it trying to get out of the iron railings again and again, and they all said that the dog was courting death.

The deep sea is different from the shallow sea. Although it seems that there are no big threatening fish on the sea surface, it is a bit hard to say. No one knows whether a shark, whale or something like that will suddenly emerge from beneath the water surface.

If there was a really strong one, Duobao would only need one bite. No matter how Duobao made a fuss, Liang Ziqiang was determined not to let him go into the water. But Hulu didn't know how to negotiate. It flapped its front fins, came to the edge of the boat, slipped under the railing, and jumped into the sea with a splash.

Duobao was so upset and extremely unbalanced that he knocked on the iron railing with his claws several times, as if accusing Liang Ziqiang of being unfair to him.

Even if it broke its claws, Liang Ziqiang didn't intend to pay attention to it, and didn't loosen the dog leash around the boat. As for the gourd, after all, it was a wild alien, so it didn't matter what happened to it. It was fine to stay in the deep sea.

The gourd swam really fast in the water. The big steel ship was moving forward at a constant speed, but it was never left behind. It would pop up from the sea surface beside the ship from time to time, with a fish in its mouth, which it would tear into pieces and swallow.

Perhaps the fish caught by the boat's trawl are not so to its liking, and it prefers to go out to sea and catch fish for itself.

When Liang Ziqiang slowed down and brought another net of fish onto the boat, he saw Hulu holding a bright red fish in its mouth and looking towards the big ship.

"Are you tired of playing and want to get on the boat?" Deng Zhaocai guessed.

"Use a rope to lower a basket down and see what happens." Liang Ziqiang ordered.

Soon, a basket was hung from the side of the ship by a long and thick rope. The steel ship was too high, and the gourd obviously couldn't be flipped up, so this was the only way to get back on board.

The boat was moving at its slowest speed, almost stagnant. Sure enough, the gourd swam over quickly, got into the basket, and was pulled up.

Liang Ziqiang looked into the basket and saw the fish in the gourd's mouth. He was stunned.

"Oriental Grouper? The color seems a little wrong again?" Liang Chun asked puzzledly.

The fish in front of me weighs about half a pound. The red color is not as pure as that of the grouper, but more brownish red, and is covered with red spots.

"Oh my god, this is definitely not a grouper. This is a red grouper! Even a grouper can't compare to it!"

Deng Zhaocai suddenly recognized him and shouted excitedly.

At the same time, he seemed to be afraid that the gourd itself would eat the small sea grouper, so he quickly took two steps forward and directly snatched the fish from the gourd's mouth!

Hulu had no intention of fighting for the fish and let him take it away.

Several people gathered around to look, and Liang Ziqiang was completely certain that this was a particularly rare deep-sea red spot!

What Deng Zhaocai said this time was absolutely correct. The red grouper is indeed extremely precious and is even better than the eastern grouper.

If there is any fish in the grouper family that can barely be compared with the "king of groupers" the mouse grouper, the red grouper can be considered one of them.

Perhaps Hulu just wanted to have fun because of the fish's bright color and brought it onto the boat.

Anyway, the gourd has done a good job this time. Even though this red grouper weighs only half a pound and is small, it is still quite valuable!

This time when we went out to sea, we caught both peacock mantis shrimp and top-grade red grouper. It seems our luck is pretty good.

In fact, like most groupers, the sea red grouper likes to stay in the reefs most of the time.

But it is not ruled out that sometimes when they go out to find food or migrate, they will swim more in the sea.

Now that a red spot has appeared on the surface of the sea, who can say there won’t be more underwater?
Liang Ziqiang immediately decided to trawle the sea where the gourd had just swam...

(End of this chapter)