Mantis Shrimp Tank

The Peacock Mantis Shrimp are also known as a Harlequin Mantis shrimp, Painted Mantis Shrimp or Clown Mantis Shrimp. They are green in color with orange legs and some leopard like spots. Peacock Mantis Shrimp like to make their home in U-shaped burrows in loose sands near the bases of coral reefs. They will sometimes even make their burrows directly in rocks and corals.

The Peacock Mantis Shrimp is what is known as a smasher. This means that it will use its club like raptorial ‘front arms’ to punch and smash its prey. Its punch is the fastest punch recorded in the animal kingdom with a punch speed of over 50 miles per hour. This is similar to a .22 caliber handgun. The resulting punch carries 340 pounds of force per strike. In order to prevent this force from cracking the Mantis Shrimps own appendages, they have an extremely dense form of crystalline hydroxyapatite (similar to bone) on the surface of their clubs with less dense layers of hydroxyapatite underneath. This makes the clubs more resistant to the impact.

Mantis shrimp possesses a set of highly complex eyes and are believed to be the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. While humans have three types of photoreceptors which allows us to see only three primary colors, red, blue, yellow. Mantis Shrimp have 12-16 types of photoreceptors allowing them to see 12-16 different colors! This has even inspired research in making Waveplates used in optics and optoelectronics to change the polarization state of light which helps in studying minerals. There have also been studies done in attempt to replicate the Mantis Shrimp’s eye mechanics. This can be used in reading CDs and other optical information storage devices.

Ancient Assyrians called them sea locusts, Australians call them prawn killers and they even are referred to as thumb splitters.

The Green Mantis Shrimp is what is known as a smasher. This means that it will use its club like raptorial ‘front arms’ to punch and smash its prey. Its punch is the fastest punch recorded in the animal kingdom with a punch speed of over 50 miles per hour. This is similar to a .22 caliber handgun. The resulting punch carries 340 pounds of force per strike that can easily break aquarium glass. In order to prevent this force from cracking the Mantis Shrimps own appendages, they have an extremely dense form of crystalline hydroxyapatite (similar to bone) on the surface of their clubs with less dense layers of hydroxyapatite underneath. This makes the clubs more resistant to the impact.

Mantis shrimp possesses a set of highly complex eyes and are believed to be the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. While humans have three types of photoreceptors which allows us to see only three primary colors, red, blue, yellow. Green Shrimp have 12-16 types of photoreceptors allowing them to see 12-16 different colors!

Damselfish are hard and somewhat aggressive species. They are a good species of fish for the new aquarist as they can survive a multitude of environmental parameters and is used as a biological stabilizer in cycling new aquariums. To reduce the aggressive behavior they may be homed with pre-established or in unison with other species.

Damselfish are also hermaphrodites which means that they are all born as males and the most dominant male will go through a biological change and transform into a female.

In this tank we have the Domino Damselfish and the Black and White Damselfish.