Peacock mantis shrimp

Care at a glance

The peacock mantis shrimp is one of the most spectacular animals you can keep: bright green with orange legs and blue accents, and with the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. Its hammer-shaped strike arms release so fast that the water boils into microscopic bubbles, and the blow can shatter a shell.

It therefore belongs in a tank of its own with a deep substrate for digging burrows, and with sturdy glass: cracked panes have been recorded. Anything with a shell is prey, so shrimp, crabs, snails and even small fish are no company; never work in its tank with bare hands.

Good to know

• Preys on shrimp and snails
• Territorial
• Digger — needs fine sand

Best not combined with

• Neon gobyElacatinus oceanops
• Cleaner shrimpLysmata amboinensis
• Hermit crab (red leg)Clibanarius sp.
• Turbo snailTurbo fluctuosus
• Fire shrimpLysmata debelius
• Emerald crabMithraculus sculptus
• Blue leg hermit crabClibanarius tricolor
• Scarlet reef hermit crabPaguristes cadenati
• Electric blue hermit crabCalcinus elegans
• Dwarf zebra hermit crabCalcinus laevimanus

Related species

• Purple reef lobsterEnoplometopus daumi
• Squamosa clam (scaly clam)Tridacna squamosa
• Blue leg hermit crabClibanarius tricolor
• Derasa clamTridacna derasa
• Flame scallopCtenoides scaber
• Scarlet reef hermit crabPaguristes cadenati