Mudskipper Id

Hi Neale,

My LFS has these Musskippers in stock.
What species are they?
Any special requrements?

Thanks
Squidward

Edit.
This one seems to have come up without a photo.
Double post.
Perhaps the Mods could delete it.

I'm not very good at identifying mudskippers! The most common species in the UK trade are Periophthalmus barbarus, Periophthalmus novemradiatus and Periophthalmus argentilineatus. Less often you see Periophthalmodon septemradiatus and Boleophthalmus spp. Of these Boleophthalmus spp. are the ones to avoid because they do extremely poorly in aquaria. A year or so back I edited an article by Gianluca Polgar all about identifying mudskippers, and I suspect you'll find it useful:

http/www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_7/volume_7_1/mudskippers.html

Apart from Periophthalmus barbarus, which can be psychotic, the other commonly traded Periophthalmus species are aggressive but not dangerously so, and can be fairly easy to keep. Richard Mleczko often suggests keeping mudskippers crowded in the same way you would with mbuna, so that males can't establish territories. Alternatively, make sure there's plenty of space and lots of hiding places, and keep more females than males.

Cheers, Neale

Thanks Neale,

I telephoned the lfs and the person told me he thinks they are from Asia.
Does that narrow it down a bit?

Squidward said:

Thanks Neale,

I telephoned the lfs and the person told me he thinks they are from Asia.
Does that narrow it down a bit?

Click to expand...

Are the dorsal and adipose fins blue, and do they get electric blue spots on their face from time to time according to mood? If so it will be Periophthalmus barbarus (like mine) and as Neale says they are psychotic. I've got 2 and I wouldn't recommend trying to overcrowd this species, in fact I'd only get one, my tank has a divider in because one would kill the other. There was a few months peaceful living and then there was a few attacks and then it got real nasty.

To be honest you only need 1, they are very personable and very interactive. They are very interested in what is going on outside of their tank and if you only had one you could make a fantastic dedicated set up.