Gonodactylus
Premium Member
I deal with questions about stomatopods breaking glass aquara on an almost daily basis. I'm responsible for some of the first reports of stomatopods breaking glass aquaria and this developed into paranoia that had many people worried about putting even a 2 inch gonodactylid into a 20 gallon glass tank. I've tried to correct this fear by explaining that only the very largest smashers can break a glass aquarium - usually when they attempt to dig along a bottom edge - and even then the most that usually happens is a chip that can leak.
There seems to be a lessening of fear about stomatopods taking out tanks, but at the same time I hear more and more people saying that they are keeping large Odontodactylus scyllarus in small glass aquaria. Aside from the problems of volume to biomass and the "mental health" of the stomatopod, there is a real danger that a LARGE peacock mantis shrimp can break a standard small glass aquarium. For those of you who remember your physics, we have been measuring impacts of over 400 N from our largest O.s. This is certainly sufficient to break glass.
In the past week we lost a glass photographic tank to a 140 mm O.s. and a friend of mine lost a 10 gal aquarium. It can and does happen. In both cases, these were panic situations were the animal was swimming wildly around the tank and ran into the side wall, striking perhaps at its sudden colorful reflection or just because of the unexpected impact.
I have no concerns what so ever about keeping a 3 or 4 inch O. scyllarus in a standard 20 gal glass tank (which is large enough for an animal this size. However, when people try to squeeze a 6 inch (15 cm) peacock mantis into a 10 gal aquarium constructed from standard thickness glass, there is a potential for disaster.
Roy
There seems to be a lessening of fear about stomatopods taking out tanks, but at the same time I hear more and more people saying that they are keeping large Odontodactylus scyllarus in small glass aquaria. Aside from the problems of volume to biomass and the "mental health" of the stomatopod, there is a real danger that a LARGE peacock mantis shrimp can break a standard small glass aquarium. For those of you who remember your physics, we have been measuring impacts of over 400 N from our largest O.s. This is certainly sufficient to break glass.
In the past week we lost a glass photographic tank to a 140 mm O.s. and a friend of mine lost a 10 gal aquarium. It can and does happen. In both cases, these were panic situations were the animal was swimming wildly around the tank and ran into the side wall, striking perhaps at its sudden colorful reflection or just because of the unexpected impact.
I have no concerns what so ever about keeping a 3 or 4 inch O. scyllarus in a standard 20 gal glass tank (which is large enough for an animal this size. However, when people try to squeeze a 6 inch (15 cm) peacock mantis into a 10 gal aquarium constructed from standard thickness glass, there is a potential for disaster.
Roy
