Setting Up A Tank For Mudskippers

[Jessica13]

Hey,

I have a spare tank, and as i've been wanting a mudskipper for ages i thought i may as well use that and get it finally So, i thought i'd try here for advice rather than the LFS, so can anyone tell me exactly how i need to go about setting the tank up. What lighting do they need? Salt? How much of the tank needs to be under water and how much needs to be dry? Can they live on their own? What do they eat?

All that sort of stuff!

Thanks!

P.S. Am looking at the smaller Periophthalmus species' at the moment, and hopefully will have a couple

 

[AMS]

Lighting really doesnt matter, but if you plan to plant mangroves you will need strong lighting, at least t-8's and ideally t-5's. Specific gravity varies with each species, but between 1.005 and 1.015 should be fine for all species. The amount of water depends on the tank size really, but there should be at least enough for the mudskipper to fully submerge itself with some swimming space. There should be more land the water, so provide ample dry areas on rocks and sand. Yes, they can live on their own. They eat a variety of meaty foods and are not picky. Foods like bloodworms, crickets, feeder/frozen fish (they love frozen silversides), krill, blackworms, earthworms, shrimp pellets etc are fine. They relish live foods, but if you plan on feeding them live foods be sure they are disease free. Live crickets are also a favorite, they hunt them down and lunge at them to gobble them up.

Hope this helps a little.

EDIT: Heres a good Mudskipper link

 

[nmonks]

AMS has covered pretty much everything, but I will pass on some things I've learned from experienced 'skipper keepers...

Filtration is much less important than humidity. These fish only use the water to moisten their gills and they are very pollution tolerant. (This isn't an excuse for poor husbandry, though!) What does kill mudskippers very quickly is dry air. You absolutely must get a tight-fitting lid that keeps the air inside the tank as warm and humid as possible. In such an environment, fungus can become a problem, so there needs to be a balance between humidity and ventilation. Read up on keeping frogs and salamanders, and keep your 'skippers in the same way.

Some species are incredibly territorial. In small tanks, people often end up with just the one. Males fight more than females, so definitely keep just one male per tank.

They aren't easy to mix with other fish, but mollies and other gobies (such as knight gobies) work well. If kept with actively swimming fish (like monos or scats) the 'skippers become nervous about swimming.

Overfeeding is very bad for them. If in doubt, underfeed.

Virtually every aquarium book (so far!) has misidentified the various species to some degree. My book out has a real expert doing the mudskippers, the guy who wrote the web page AMS recommended. He has collected lots of species and kept them in aquaria for years. You will definitely find what he has to say of value.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Jessica13]

Thanks for both of those replies, they have been really helpful!!

I need to do plenty of research (obviously!) before getting my mudskipper, but i thought my tank lid might be a problem because of humidity! It isn't the best fit for the tank so may have to invest in a new one!

With the filtration, you say its not as important as humidity, so would i still need a normal filter? Or just a powerhead or something??

My tank is approx. 20 gallons. I read somewhere that the smaller ones need 5 gallons each so in theory i could keep four, but i think that would be too many. Would i be better going for a slightly larger one and keeping it alone maybe?? Any suggestions of what types of mudskipper might do well in that size tank alone?

And im very used to feeding live crickets from keeping reptiles so it'll be fun to be buying and housing those again

 

[nmonks]

With the filtration, you say its not as important as humidity, so would i still need a normal filter? Or just a powerhead or something?

A regular filter. I'd recommend an external canister filter since these are quite large and messy fish. You just don't need to be paranoid about filtration and water changes in the same way as, say, pufferfish.

My tank is approx. 20 gallons. I read somewhere that the smaller ones need 5 gallons each so in theory i could keep four, but i think that would be too many. Would i be better going for a slightly larger one and keeping it alone maybe?? Any suggestions of what types of mudskipper might do well in that size tank alone?

There may be "small mudskippers" out there in the wild, but the species traded are of the order of 15 cm (6 inches) in length, so you need to plan for a tank of substantial size. Periophthalmus barbarus is the species normally sold in the UK. A 20 gallon tank might be okay for a single specimen, but not much more. To be honest, I'd be looking at a tank at least twice that size if I wanted to keep three or four specimens.

http/filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Summary/Speci...ry.php?id=12803

And im very used to feeding live crickets from keeping reptiles so it'll be fun to be buying and housing those again

Richard Mleczko has an excellent summary care sheet on these fish at the link below. I happen to know he recommends against feeding food items (like crickets and mealworms) that mudskippers don't normally encounter. One problem with them in captivity is constipation, which eventually kills them (a horrible way to go, I imagine). Crickets and mealworms are perhaps too large for small mudskippers to handle safely. Richard always recommends using foods they'd normally eat, like small flies and shrimps, alongside prepared foods such as flake.

http/members.ozemail.com.au/~thebobo/care.htm

As a total aside, there are very 'skipper-like gobies that can work well in smaller tanks. I kept a pair of Awaous flavus (=Awaous strigatus, or candy-stripe goby) and the male become so tame he'd crawl onto my hand at the top of the tank. They have the same basic shape and behaviour, just underwater, and are freshwater fish that do well with other community species.

Cheers,

Neale