Ok So Here Goes.........

[Oddball]

Ok ok, so i havent been on the forums in AGES and in truth ive been busy busy busy! But today a colleague of mine was saying to me about mudskippers, and it got the old mind a ticking

Thing is I have a 3x2x2 tank doing NOTHING at the moment, and i was thinking of putting something in it, due to the nature of the discussion im thinking skippers.

What I propose is an area of 2.5foot x 1 foot of "land" a marshy aquatic substrate held in place by a glass partition with access granted by smooth bogwood so the skippers can flop up and down to their hearts content. Along the back i thought of having some rock work with "air plants" I cant be specific at the species but ive seen them in my local garden centre, they can be stuck to any solid object, dont need soil, and just need misting once a day with normal water, in theory evaporation from the tank should deal with them! I propose to have about 9 inch of water depth and filter with a modified 305 fluval external filter

Ok so we have the basic layout, but, i've also seen the empire gudgeon Hypseleotris compressa and was wondering if i could include a male and two females with 3 Anableps ( I am aware they can reach a foot long) but franky i would like to see if i can pull this aquarium off on a small scale at the moment!

So heres the questions:

1) is the above idea feasable
2) Which species of skippers the best, ive heared that the african one is larger and more aggressive
3) If anableps would not fit, what other suitable companions can you reccomend
4) What aquatic plants can tolerate brackish
5) Whats the BEST diet to feed skippers on, im not shy about feeding correctly
6) should i go for anableps and im happy with the tank feel and upkeep, i would like to upgrade, what size tank would be suitable to house the above three species at adult size, and what other tankmate would be suitable

 

[nmonks]

1) is the above idea feasable
2) Which species of skippers the best, ive heared that the african one is larger and more aggressive

The answer to both of these depends on the species in question. The Indian dwarf mudskipper (Periophthalmus novemradiatus) would be ideally suited to a medium-sized system, and so perhaps would any of the smaller (sub-10 cm) species like Periophthalmus argentilineatus.

3) If anableps would not fit, what other suitable companions can you reccomend

Anableps are very difficult to maintain, and being very active and quite large (25+ cm) they would terrify the mudskippers. In all honesty, you're better off avoiding tankmates altogether, except perhaps very small gobies and livebearers. BBGs and Endler guppies for example would both be viable.

4) What aquatic plants can tolerate brackish

See pinned thread. But don't bother in this tank. Aquatic plants aren't part of the habitat anyway, and what you're after are bogwood branches and roots coupled with whatever plastic or silk plants you want to create a terrestrial "jungle" for the 'skippers to explore.

5) Whats the BEST diet to feed skippers on, im not shy about feeding correctly

Depends on the species, but in general small flies (not crickets!) and things like chopped seafood and frozen bloodworms. A few species (Boleophthalmus) are herbivores, but these species rarely last long in aquaria anyway and should be avoided.

6) should i go for anableps and im happy with the tank feel and upkeep, i would like to upgrade, what size tank would be suitable to house the above three species at adult size, and what other tankmate would be suitable

Anableps is whole other kettle of fish so far as maintenance goes. They are very difficult to maintain for long unless given a very specific environment. The simplest way to keep these fish is in a big rectangular tank with some flower pots in the middle on top of which is placed a large slate or similar flat, smooth rock. This rock needs to be just below the surface of the water. The Anableps happily 'beach' themselves on this. Your main problems are that Anableps are big, schooling fish that scare easily. Good specimens are quite robust and eat anything, but getting good specimens is hard, and you want to avoid really small specimens as these don't seem to travel well.

Rhinomugil corsula is smaller, easier to maintain Indian mullet that sticks its head out of the water but doesn't otherwise need to beach itself. It can be kept in freshwater or brackish water conditions with equal success. Do see my Brackish FAQ for additional comments on mudskippers, Anableps and Rhinomugil, and if you're serious about mudskippers, reading Richard Mleczko's chapter on them in my book is mandatory. There's really no better single source of detail information on these fish available.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Colin_T]

The living air plants you want to stick to the backing will not do too well in a brackish set up. Eventually they will get salt spray on them and it will kill them. If you have them high enough up they might not get any salt spray but will require a misting with freshwater each day.

Pseudomugil signifer can be kept with the smaller species of mudskipper.

I have found most mudskippers to be somewhat territorial and need more than one area to come out of water. If there is only one patch of land there might be arguments over it. Having a number of islands or floating platforms will provide more areas for each fish and should prevent fights. Pieces of polystyrene foam can be left to float around the tank, and you can put limestone rocks in the tank that have been cut off at the top to provide a flat platform.

 

[LauraFrog]

Pseudomugil signifer comes from a wide variety of habitats and can tolerate anything from freshwater to near marine, but they can also be obnoxious fin nippers. I don't know if they would be good tankmates for fish as timid as mudskippers. There are other species of Pseudomugil that also tolerate brackish. I recommend P. furcatus, they are brackish tolerant, larger at about 6cm and much nicer from what I've seen and read. The only other available species of Pseudomugil outside Australia generally is P. gertrudae, the spotted or Gertrude blue eye, which is recognisable because it's blue and the fins are covered in black spots. This is a delicate fish and essentially freshwater, I have never heard reports of them being found in water as salty as mudskippers require.

 

[Oddball]

Ok guys thanks for the feed back, i wasnt aware that skippers were so timid, another question springs to mind, do i feed them on land or in the water? bit of an odd one!

Also with them being so timid, could i keep the Hypseleotris compressa with them or a few knight gobies?

 

[Colin_T]

Mud skippers are not really that timid. If they are newly caught they will be, but should calm down and become quite tame in a few weeks. The ones in the shop settle down after a few days and will usually take food from your hand after a couple of weeks. Many of them even wait for feeding time and then jump on your hand so they can get the food first. It almost gets to a stage where you have to shoe them away so you can work in the tank.

I feed them on the land, usually in a small ceramic bowl so the food doesn't go everywhere. I use marine mix as their main diet, it consists of prawn, fish, squid and spinach. They like plant matter and will graze on algae covered rocks. They aren't really fussy about food and will eat most things.

Empire gudgeons (H. compressa) and knight gobies should be fine with them.

The main thing to be aware of is the water volume. Mudskippers eat a lot and produce a lot of mess. You need to do regular water changes to keep the water clean. Make the water up the day before it is used so the salt has a chance to dissolve completely before the water is added to the tank. Mud skipper tanks are usually only about half full and this will reduce the water volume making water changes even more important.
Try to cycle the filters before you get the fish. Brackish tanks have an alkaline PH (PH above 7.)) and this will cause any ammonia to become really toxic to the fish. If the filters have been cycled before the fish go in, there shouldn't be any problems with ammonia poisoning.

 

[nmonks]

As Colin says, mudskippers aren't timid as such, but they instinctively avoid going into water where they see large fish. In the wild such fish would be viewed as predators, and since mudskippers are poor swimmers, mudskippers are safer on land than in the water.

Mudskippers are ammonia tolerant, probably because they need to spend time in a burrow above the waterline where the trapped water becomes quite dirty. So you can safely cycle the tank with the mudskippers in place, so long as you change the water if the ammonia concentration gets above 0.5-1 mg/l.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Oddball]

Thanks that really has cleared up a few issues for me there, guess its time to do my product research and come and post what i have, regarding my filters i have a Fluval 305 external thats already matured on a malawi tank, that should be fine