Mantis shrimp!!

Hey guys
I was at the store and I saw this mantis shrimp and I was wondering if anyone knew what type this was.

 

cant realy tell from the pic but he looks cool

 

were you able to see the body colors? or any sort of markings on it? but very cool. great critters

 

well it was mostly black and had um...light blue spots on them..
I was thinking it could be a smithii. The whole body is black with some light blue spots though..

 

The meral spots are one of the main features to tell you what species it is. Also many species have an unique marking somewhere. You need that info.

The actual colour is generally meaningless since many species come in many colours. They will even change colour after a molt.

If it is a smithii it will have purple meral spots. Also, knowing where it came from will help. The LFS should know that. If it's from the Caribbean it's not a smithii either.