Holy cow! Are Mantis Shrimp known to do this?

[AttackDonut]

I have a nice peacock, about 4" long. Apparently overnight, he re-arranged the live rocks forming his home.

Furthermore, he took live rock, *from across the tank* and dragged it over to make a roof for the burrow he dug.

I didn't realize they were that intelligent? Or do I just have an exceptionally bright one?

 

[RogueCorps]

They're pretty smart as well as darn strong! We saw ours pick up a piece of LR the size of a golf ball and swim with it! I can't believe people don't like them...

-Rogue

 

[Aqua_expert19]

i like them but not when i find them in my reef tank or in a peice of live rock and they smash or poke your finger

 

[Gonodactylus]

O. scyllarus live in u-shaped burrows that they did rubbly substrates. For a five inch animal, the typical burrow is about 2 inches in diameter and 2-3 feet long. Generally they fortify the burrow wall with pieces of coral rubble, shell, etc. It is not unusual to find them dragging baseball sized pieces of rubble to incorporate into their burrows. In aquaria, they will often build two parallel rows of rubble and then cap it over with large pieces to form a tunnel. They will then strengthen the burrow by adding more small bits to the top surface.

This seems to be common behavior for all Odontodactylus species. Smaller animals like O. havanensis from Florida, O. brevirostris from Hawaii and O. latirostris from Australia usually build multiple burrows a few feet apart and use them for escape. You case an animal out of one burrow and it proceeds at high speet to the next.

Roy