Fiddler's In Mudskipper Aquaria?

vipervenom · Post by **vipervenom** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:09 pm

The ones I currently own are Indian mudskippers and not only come in smaller but stay smaller. That is not to say I won't move them into larger quarters when needs be though. Right now they are behaving very normal and fairly peaceful to one another. Of course they defend their territory but nothing too aggressive or dangerous and each has their own. They often sit beside each other to eat. I have a 29 gal awaiting them when they get larger.

kass · Post by **kass** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 4:14 pm

vipervenom, I was wondering how/ if you vacuum your substrate. I just go my 10 gallon indian mudskipper tank going a bit less than a month ago, and am finding it hard vacuum the substrate due to the small amounts of water. Also, do you use a hydrometer to measure the SG in your tank?

vipervenom · Post by **vipervenom** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 4:09 pm

My tank has a pleiglass divider siliconed half way in the tank, only about 5" high. On one side I have river bed sand to imitate a mudflat, the other side is water. Once a week I siphon out all of the water in the water area of the tank and replace it with brackish water from an existing tank. This saves me the time to mix the water, and it is already the salinity I need. A hydrometer and real ocean salt is the only way to go to keep a mudskipper living healthy.

Also around once a month I fill up most of the tank with water (remove the mudskippers first) and all of the detrius from both sides of the tank are siphoned very carefully without removing any sand. I also have a small fluval filter in the water section of the tank to keep it clean. I actually find mudskippers to be very clean fish. They do not produce a ton of waste and are pretty neat eaters. But you still need to keep up on water changes. I will get pics of my setup asap.

kass · Post by **kass** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 5:05 pm

At what level, or range do you keep the SG? And just wondering where you put the skippers when you clean the tank. I previously had a few mudskippers who passed on, and they didnt seem to like being displaced from their home when I was cleaning. I would just put them in a container with a few centimeters of water. I just got my new ones 2 weeks ago... there soo small and cute...

vipervenom · Post by **vipervenom** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:48 pm

Yeah I've had mine for a little over a month. A good idea would be to invest in a critter keeper and have some brackish water in it prior to cleaning, or like me, take some water from my existing brackish tank, and put a few cm in there with a rock so they can get above the water.

I keep the SG at around 1.006-1.010. Mudskippers are very forgiving with their salinity needs. Most all mangrove fish are because it changes almost daily between the tides and heavy rainfall. It could be almost pure saltwater or pure fresh but it is always safe to stay in the middle. Also be sure to keep them warm.

kass · Post by **kass** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 6:45 pm

what are you feeding your skippers? Right now mine are eating frozen bloodworms and brine, and freeze dried bloodworms. I'm looking for more variety. When they get bigger I'll feed them crickets, but I think there way too small now.

vipervenom · Post by **vipervenom** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 5:37 pm

My mudskippers eat just about anything. But I can definitely tell what they like more. They highly prefer frozen bloodworms or crushed shrimp over food pellets. Also they love livefood. Live guppies thrown in or small rosey reds they would like, as well as smaller non-toxic insects like 1/4" or even pinheads.

kass · Post by **kass** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:57 pm

VV, just wondering if you, or anyone else knows how big the indian mudskippers get? I can't find a definite answer, just that they dont get any bigger than 4 inches.

vipervenom · Post by **vipervenom** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:55 am

The hardest part about mudskippers is identifying the species you have. The best way to even guess is start by asking the supplier where they collected them from. Mine were collected in the India region I have been told. The best idea is to give them enough space should they attain their full size (around 6") so maybe a 30-40 gal long. It's hard to say because they are so uncommon.

Feathers&Fins · Post by **Feathers&Fins** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:13 am

FYI: Richard Mleczko's Mudskipper and Goby website
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~thebobo/goby.htm#menu

vipervenom · Post by **vipervenom** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:51 pm

Yeah he has an amazing site. Actually, the only full-blown mudskipper site I know. Should have posted it earlier for convenience, lol, thanks feathers&fins!

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Fiddler's In Mudskipper Aquaria?