Mantis Shrimp destroys a fairly large Clam

[albertthiel]

Video definitely worth seeing / watching

Shows you how the Smashers can really shatter Clam shells even if they have to keep smashing until it is broken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ahuZEvWH8

Albert

[Stussi613]

I really, really want to one of these to put in my sump when I get my big system running.  We saw one in the wild when we were snorkeling in the Dominican Republic and they are really awesome in Nature.  There was an area about 2 square feet around his rock where pretty much everything stayed away and he was only about 2.5" long!

[ajm1961]

Can these shrimp crack the glass in an aquarium? Seems like they pack a powerful punch!

[albertthiel]

Can these shrimp crack the glass in an aquarium? Seems like they pack a powerful punch!

Not likely unless you have a real large one in a small tank with thin glass panes but it is rare. What you may want to do is cover the bottom of the tank with a piece of thin acrylic so that if they bang on the bottom in an attempt to build a new burrow they do not crack it and cause a leak but again this is a rare happening.

The latest issue of the Nano Reef Newsletter is 19 pages long and deals with Mantis Shrimp throughout the entire 19 pages.

It will be released later today but if you do not get a free issue, I will be posting a message on our web site nano reefs.info on how you can get that 19 page double issue of the Newsletter anyway for the low price of $5.00

Also Spearers can definitely not shatter anything ... Smashers have to hit the shell of a Clam sometimes 15 or more times before they actually fracture it and get to the soft meaty part that they eat .. so the punch they give is not as forceful as some say but they deliver it with great acceleration and it is the repetitiveness of the smashing that eventually will crack the shell of the Clam or whatever else they are trying to consume.

There is also no reason for a Mantis to start pounding in the tank's glass unless it is being harassed from the outside by a bystander. And even if they do so since they more than likely never hit the same spot twice, breaking the glass is very very rare, and as I said in small tanks with thin glass in which a large Mantis is kept (which is not what should be done anyway).