Mantis shrimp, will they climb out?

manowar669

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Sep 11, 2004
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My fiance loves crustaceans, and has wanted a mantis for a while. We've had the tank set up for months, and finally found a peacock mantis. My only question is, will this guy climb out of the tank like freshwater crustaceans?
 
Not to my knowledge, or at least I have neve rheard of them climbing out. An eggcrate lid would never hurt though!!
 
The species that smash thing instead of poking them can!!
 
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You will need an acrylic tank, they can smash thru glass.
 
You will not need an acrlyic tank, for any species of mantis.

100% of the time, when you hear of them breaking glass, it's the bottom pane of glass, due to their burrowing. This is mainly the keepers fault, for not providing a deep enough sand bed. The mantis burrows, reaches the bottom of the tank, thinks it's rock and pounds away at it until it causes a crack...they will NOT "smash thru glass".

You can VERY easily solve this problem by laying down a piece of plexi, cut to fit, into the bottom of the glass tank and then cover that will an ample sand bed.

I've kept a total of 4 Peacocks (as well as 5 other species) and have never once had any of them break glass. All were also kept in 20gal. tanks, without plexi and all grew to adult size (aprox. 5" - 6").

And, as others have said...a lid is a good idea. I had one get spooked, one time and jet out of the tank, only to crash a good 3', onto the hardwood floor, and break it's shell.
 
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