More on the Peacock Mantis Shrimp

Hey,
I noticed the gorgeous picture of the peacock mantis shrimp posted on the blog and wanted to find out a little bit more about them. This website gives a brief overview of their behavior for anyone considering keeping one in their aquarium. They are not related to shrimp or the praying mantis, but are named Mantis Shrimp because of similar appearance and hunting behavior to the shrimp and praying mantis.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/msubpestmshrimp/a/aa110498.htm

My favorite informational tid-bit was this:

There are two hunting categories, the "spearers" and the "smashers". The "spearers" use their spear-like claw to silently stab soft tissued prey. The "smashers" use their forceful, club-like claw to hit, crack open or pulverize harder bodied prey. It is interesting that the power of the "smashers" appendage can produce a blow close to the power of a .22 caliber bullet and are notoriously known as "thumb splitters". It is rumored that because of the tremendous strength these animals have, they can crack aquarium glass. From a story about how a pet Mantis Shrimp broke 1/4 inch aquarium glass, that was posted in The Daily Mirror (a British Newspaper) on Friday, April 10, 1998, page 11, this documentation leads us to believe that this is possible.

Then there is a link from that website to a brief story of "Tyson" breaking the aquarium class.

Here's another website you can purchase them at ($43.99!!), along with a warning of their aquarium breaking capabilities:

http://www.paradisepetshop.net/en/peacock-mantis-shrimp.html