THIS IS YOUR MYTH BUSTERS GEM!!!!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have a 6" Peacock mantis that has been smacking the glass daily, of his 15g tank for a year now, w/o any cracks. Hubby is still glad it isn't plumbed into my main system though. Haha, he's doing it right now! He has been very ancy lately & has decided he doesn't like the decor in his tank & has been snapping at everything & moving large "boulders" all around his cave that he has redug.
Dozer.jpg

Who you lookin at?!
 
Me too pcf I find these creatures fascinating the way they are able to smash and break things they are almost creepy the way the scurry around...I asked the manager at the lfs and he said they are very capable of breaking aquarium glass and your hand and finger...check out this vid if that thing makes that kinda noise banging on a crab shell I'm sure it can break tank glass with its appendege.http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hkv_30niM_A&feature=related
 
I have been wacked in the finger many times by mine & I doubt she could break it. (We've decided it's a "she", because she's always redecorating her home.)
 
I think you would need a very large smasher in a very small tank with thin glass and crab teasing it from the outside to even have a chance. Still dont think anything will happen. Its one of those one in a million things.
 
VLDesign;1705159; said:
Prices vary on species. Smaller ones I've seen for 25-20, Peacocks usually sell for around 40-50. I have never seen one of the Yellow/blue ones from above anywhere for sale in tha past 8 years of doing salt.
The one in those pics isn't really an aquarium species, I guess. It has no common name, and the info says its rarely caught. Its being studied by biologists in the pics. If any mantis shrimp can bust an aquarium, its that one. The Hemisquilla californiensis is a smasher, gets over 13"
 
I have read an artical in the April 2007 Freshwater and Marine Aquarium magazine called Tank killers by Tom Bowling where he talked about the same thing. He said that one of the ones he had broke through the front glass of a 4x2x2 tank (120 I think).
 
so basing off this thread so far it sounds like there is alot of reading that they CAN break glass but no Vids to prove this. therefore no HARD evidence to support that they can..

Sounds like a solid MYTH to me
 
I can hear mine clicking all the way at the other end of the house. Hubby says it sounds like a marble getting wacked against the glass & is just waiting for it to break.
 
I was talking to my roommate about this last night. he knew exactly what I was talking about. he said he saw one break a pane of glass on TV. it wasn't aquarium glass, though, just a piece someone placed inside the aquarium.
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com