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Mudskippers and Wasp Fish

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:46 pm
by FrogLover007
Hello everyone. Although I have no puffers (I was considering a Congo puffer for a while, but live fish were too much money) I need help from someone with serious brackish expertise and this website seemed like the best one for that. My question is this: Can Indian mudskippers be kept with wasp fish (i.e. butterfly goby). From what I hear they are predatory but the Indian mudskippers I am getting very soon are around the same size as wasp fish. My only worry would be aggression or injury from the venom of the wasp fish (would this be possible?). I thank you all in advance. :)
Tom

Re: Mudskippers and Wasp Fish

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 12:29 am
by pufferfreak
If i remember correctly the venom of the wasp fish is little to none as far as it being harmful goes. I am sure if the tank is large enough and the mudskippers could get out of the water it wouldn't be a problem. However i have no experience with waspfish.

Re: Mudskippers and Wasp Fish

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:24 pm
by FrogLover007
I was also pretty sure the venom isnt harmful. I was more worried about the mudskippers being aggressive towards the wasp fish, but then again, with a painful sting or two they will probably give up. I think I will try it and will update when I do :). Thanks for the help. Oh I remember you from temperate marine website. I was Zebra. I stopped posting because my mom would not let me get a marine aquarium.

Re: Mudskippers and Wasp Fish

Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:22 am
by Iliveinazoo
I don't like to bear bad news :( but I have major reservations on your proposed combination:

The venom may not be fatal to humans, but to a small fish?

I have kept a waspfish in the past and I currently own 2 barbarus mudskippers and to be honest I wouldn't keep any fully aquatic fish with mudskippers. The reason being is that mudskipper tanks should have a lot of land and not much water (I would say at least 50% land). They also don't like the water to be very deep - my barbarus tank is approximately 10cm deep and Indian Mudskippers are smaller. Could you keep a tank with very little water in the prisitne conditions required for fully aquatic fish?

Waspfish are very slow feeders and very difficult to train onto anything other than live foods; mudskippers absolutely love their food and get very excited at feeding time.
Mudskippers also crash around their tank (especially if more than one is kept) and my guess is that they wouldn't see the waspfish and consequently get stung or they would scare the waspfish so much that it would never come out of its hiding place to get food and would ultimately die of stress or starvation).

What I'm trying to say is that you would need to have an extremely large and long tank to even attempt keeping fully aquatic fish with mudskippers and it would need to be even larger still to keep a waspfish with them.

If you do attempt to keep a fully aquatic fish then please try it with a more robust fish and a large enough fish so that it wont be made breakfast.

As a final word on Waspfish: I have a couple of theories on why my waspfish died and one of the theories is that it was bullied to death by a halfbeak, the other is that i couldn't provide a balanced enough diet as he would only eat live brineshrimp, daphnia and bloodworm. I believe that these fish should only be kept with very peaceful and docile tankmates.

If you want an expert opinion then try PM'ing Nmonks (he is a mentor here) as he has wrote a book on Brackish species and so is very well placed to comment.

Re: Mudskippers and Wasp Fish

Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:00 pm
by FrogLover007
Thanks for your advice. I will take it. I forgot to mention that the tank is 55 gallons and mostly land, but there is a large enough water area for smaller fish like wasp fish. What book did Nmonks write? I might want to read that. I do know the care of mudskippers and knew they could be aggressive. I might try some mollies or something like that in a while.
Thanks again,
Tom

Re: Mudskippers and Wasp Fish

Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 1:53 pm
by Iliveinazoo
That's probably a better combination if you've got enough water.

He wrote this book: http://www.amazon.com/Brackish-Water-Fi ... 0793805643

I've got that one and the Aqualog one: http.amazon.com/AQUALOG-Special-Brackish-Water-Fishes-Breeding/dp/393602782X

Both are really good reads.