Mudskipper pictures

[NikiP]

Thought i'd post pics of my newest fish favorite. Have never kept any amphibians, but plenty of fish, & this guy has the best of both worlds.

I highly recommend them to anyone wanting something different

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=227623&id=557970796&ref=pb

Very little time is spent in the water like a fish, they don't swim well & can drown. In a few weeks i'm doing an over haul to it's tank. Will be adding caribsea mineral mud, way less water, & live/young mangroves. Since it's dug it's own pool, i've noticed it spends almost no time in the other end so I want to give it more of a mud soup & allow it to dig out it's own pool.

It's been fun learning about it. There isn't much on the web about them, most of what i've found in various forums has been several years old & the setups i've seen usually go against how they live in the wild.

The best thing is it's curiosity. As soon as I enter the room it's at the top of it's wall to look at me & 75% of the time it comes hopping over to me. Sometimes it even attaches itself to the glass & just watches me Total pig, always ready to stuff it's face with blood worms & cut up shrimp. The deep pool end has ghost shrimp, which it will eat if they get close enough.

 

[eelnoob]

Would love to see pictures but don't have facebook account.

 

[NikiP]

Sorry, I had the album open to everyone, didn't think nonmembers still couldn't see

Notice the jointed fins:

Basic setup, although it has been changed around & will be redone:

This is how I get greeted :

This is where it's begun digging. I believe with the addition of mud it'll be able to dig an actually burrow:

 

[pwilson5]

that is sweet! can they be kept communally?

 

[NikiP]

Yes & no. Overall the species is pretty aggressive. There is an Indian species that stays just a few inches long & i've read are the easiest keep together.

Mine hasn't lifted it's dorsal fin for me yet, so I still don't know if I have a west African species (most aggressive, tops out at 10") or an Asian species (tops out at about 4".) Although I am leaning towards it being Asian.

If you want to keep multiples, they have to have a lot of space. When I picked mine out, it was about double the size of the other skippers in the tank because it was the dominate one.

They also tend to eat anything that fits in their mouth. Have read that fiddler crabs are the best tank mates, except when they get big enough to eat them Almost every setup i've seen so far for them has involved a ton of water with fish, & they seem to do ok. I just don't think the setups allow them to hunt like they should be able to.

 

[Galapoheros]

Those things make me laugh! I didn't know they could be kept easy enough in a tank. I went to Youtube and watched some vids, pretty entertaining fish.

 

[Green Mantis]

What size tank do you have it in? What does it eat? I have seen them, but thought they got quite big. Didn't know there were other varieties? That is a neat looking Mudskipper!!!! Congrats.:clap:

 

[NikiP]

They eat a variety of things. Currently mine gets blood worms as a staple, plus bits of chopped up frozen shrimp, there are live ghost shrimps in the water which it has eaten beforeeaten