So the breaking/chipping glass thing...

J

JxP

New member
My current setup is a 75 gallon display tank with a glass 40 gallon breeder. The breeder has three sections that hold the skimmer, return, and a largish middle area for the mantis. The middle has a 5 inch sand bed with live rock and a .25 inch thick sheet of acrylic on top of the glass (bottom) for my mantis shrimp.

I read various things about mantis hitting their reflections etc, but how realistic is that scenario and at what size of mantis should I really be concerned with the side panes (if ever)?

I have no idea what species my mantis is because it has only fully came out once which was when I moved it's rock out of the display into the 40G. It is reddish/brown and roughly 3 inches long. It makes clicking noises and whacks some of the food I give it with my tweezers (only comes out enough to hit/grab food).

Otherwise it doesn't seem to be nocturnal and watches me throughout the day. It is also seems to enjoy being fed various things from tongs. It was collected in Hawaii (Oahu).

Nutshell version - Can Hawaiian mantis shrimp break glass? lol.
 
Nah, you should be good. You even took the precaution of lining the bottom with acrylic.

On paper it's possible, but realisticly people often claim it as a myth.. you don't see too many mantis busting through aquarium threads anywhere.
 
I would not be too worried about it in your case. Dr. Caldwell has kept many thousands of mantis shrimp of all types and I believe he's mentioned only a few isolated circumstances of very large smashers causing damage to the glass. You might do a quick search for posts by him to see what he has to say about it (screen name "gonodactylus")
 
A three inch reddish brown smashing stomatopod from Oahu could be one of three species; Gonodactylaceus falcatus, Odontodactylus brevirostris or Echinosquilla guerini. None of them would be capable of breaking the glass of your system.

For the record, I have only had large individuals of three species break aquaria. They are Hemisquilla californiensis, Odontodactylus scyllarus and Gonodactylus chiragra. There are a hand full of other species that based on their size and feeding habitats might be capable of it. They would include G. ternatensis (I had one male that was 125 mm), G. glabrous and G. graphurus (powerful and aggressive for their size), G. platysoma (large and powerful, but not likely to strike), and the other three species of Hemisquilla, H. ensigera, H. braziliensis and H. australiensis (all smaller than H. californiensis).

Roy
 
Ok thanks for the replies everyone! I will go research those species to make sure I am giving the mantis the best setup. I am hoping I can get a good picture of it so I can upload it here.

*edit*

That is a pretty nice website Dr. Caldwell! It looks like all three stay relatively small so the tank size should be great... I have to say the mantis has been the best free pet I have found in my system from live rock yet! I just got lucky that I found his rock (by accident) so I could move it without having to tear up the display tank.
 
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Roy just out of curiousity, how often do you experience an animal cracking the glass? I'm just wondering if the adverage aquarist should take caution of the animal breaking out, or if it's just a very rare possibility that happened once or twice in the past.
 
If I do a back of the envelope calculation looking only at glass aquaria (all thicknesses) that house O scyllarus over 5 inches, G. chiragra over 4 inches and adult Hemisquilla, I would say that the failure rates is roughly once every 50 to 75 tank years. This includes leaks due to chipping as well as catastrophic breakage. That would be less than once in a life time for the average home aquarist, but more than enough if your spouse loves their hardwood floors.

Roy
 
Currently we house two peacocks. One is very small and took me over a year to obtain(1 inch). Second one is about 4 inches and has been with us for about 2 years. The small one is doing great in his 40 breeder. Now the big one for the last 3 months or so has been the devil of the house. Banging everything over and over at all times day or night. Favorite target the front glass of aquarium. This one also has her own 40 breeder. I have kept all types of mantis shrimps for 15 years. Never have I experienced one this crazy. All of us mantis people get accustomed to the banging. But this special one has taken it to a level never before seen or heard Anyone have any thoughts... She strikes the front glass so hard at night that it will wake up my kids and we are all upstairs and she is downstairs Lately I am finding myself coming down the stairs expecting to see a cracked tank. Anyone else experience this?
 
That was first thing I thought also. But no tank parameters are perfect. My honest belief , believe it or not , is that she wants to be fed. When she first started this months ago I got nervous of the glass cracking so after attaches on the front on the tank I would feed her and the mayhem would stop. Not trying to reward her but when its 3 am and ur awaken by these bangs. It was the only way I knew to get it to stop. Now I may have unleashed the demon. It was funny at first but now it's really driving us mad
 
Hadla said:
Maybe there's something wrong in the tank and she's trying to alert you? That's my guess :/
Click to expand...

It's a possibility.

Every time the pump for mine's burrow wasn't working (or in other words.. I forget to plug it in as always..) he would bang on the glass to grab my attention, and then when he seen me approaching he would bang on the pump. He ceased it when I got it working again.
 
We been looking at acrylic tanks fir past week cause this may be only solution
I firmly believe the tank will break if I leave her in there.
The force is extreme.
 
Checked everything in tank. Even changed out heater after measuring voltage and reading up on stray current and that whole saga of voltage in tanks. But nope she still is at it
Seems to be worst in middle of night
 
I had a graphurus in the past that would smash the filter around midnight because the room light was on, when i starting turning it off he stopped doing it.
 
Stomatopods are very sensitive to vibration as well, have anything that vibrates including the equiptment that may be agitating it? The glass could just be the target since vibration is pretty difficult to pinpoint when the whole water column is vibrating.
 
It always amazes me how smart these creatures are! If Roger is hungry, he will start hitting my snails to get my attention! A few days ago, he did that, and I held a shrimp piece in the water and he swam up, hit my hand a few times, then grabbed it and ran! I think that was my punishment! XD it was too funny!
 
Calappidae said:
It's a possibility.

Every time the pump for mine's burrow wasn't working (or in other words.. I forget to plug it in as always..) he would bang on the glass to grab my attention, and then when he seen me approaching he would bang on the pump. He ceased it when I got it working again.
Click to expand...


That's pretty amazing to hear. I guess I should pay more attention to mine when he starts thumping.
 
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