I've posted on this topic at this site dozens of times over the past three or four years. Search under "acrylic".
The quick answer is that unless you are keeping a 6 inch O. scyllarus or 12 inch Hemisquilla, you probably have nothing to worry about provided that you are using a standard commercially produced glass or acrylic aquaria that are the appropriate size for the stomatopods you are keeping. The reason I say this is because occasionally people (myself included) will construct a photographic tank from thin window glass. Even an 8 cm G. chiragra can break one of these tanks and I use them knowing the risk.
Large smashers usually cannot break an acrylic tank, but they can dent it. Sometimes they will decide to dig in a particular corner and repeatedly strike the same area. The result is a pitted acrylic wall that is not very attractive.
Glass is not pitted but edges can be chipped. A large smasher trying to dig in a corner will often come to the wall and try to break through the obstruction just as it would a piece of coral rubble in the field. The result can be a chip that can cause a leak. Again, I stress that this would only happen with something larger than a 7 or 8 cm Gonodactylus or a large O. scyllarus or Hemisquilla.
In my 37 years of keeping stomatopods in my lab at Berkeley and at various marine labs, I can count on one hand the catastrophic aquarium failures I have had caused by a stomatopod knocking out the side of a tank. We have had a few more leaks from chipped corners and edges (and lots of broken heaters and tank dividers).
If you want to play it really safe, I recommend lining the bottom edges of a glass tank with 1/8" thick acrylic. You don't need to cover the entire bottom, perhaps just a 1- 2 inch strip around the bottom edges. If a large smasher does decide to take out its frustrations while digging, the worst that will happen will be a few dents in the acrylic.
Roy
p.s. I have been occasionally asked what was the worst tank failure I've had. In the mid-70's we used a lot of 35 gal "Instant Ocean" systems. These were made from marine plywood with a viewing window placed in the front. The glass was thick double glazing. I had a large male O. scyllarus about 6.5 inches long that was quite aggressive. One day a a scientific journal editor was visiting my lab and to impress him with the pugnacity of stomatopods, I started teasing the animal with my finger on the glass. The animal made a swimming attack, struck the center of the glass window and broke it. I've always had a fond place in my heart for that animal because its exploits were responsible for my being asked to write my first major paper about stomatopods (1976, Scientific American).
