Are they really okay to be kept as a single fish? SF mentions keeping a single mudskipper. I don't think I have enough space to keep a group with males (territorial) where they wouldn't stress each other.
I'd love to see and/or hear about your mudskipper tanks or experience
- Thread starter rebe
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Archerfish
Fish Crazy
Yes, they are happier living alone in a nicely planted tank (emersed growth) with an island. They are territorial. I kept three of them in separate tanks. Two lived about 5-years and one lived nearly 7-years. Initially, I had two in a 30-gallon show tank (tall) and they did okay for about two years but then started fussing so I started up another tank. Feel free to ask my lessons learned. Here are a couple of essential care requirements: they need a tightly fitting lid on the tank. They are escape artists and like high humidity. Your heater should have a protective cover to prevent them from burns. Provide a sizeable basking area because they need to get out of the water. They love to climb on emersed growing plants like Java fern which is a brackish tolerant plant.
OP
OP
Thank you for sharing your experience! I'm sure I'll have many questions to ask, I'm very keen to keep a mudskipper but I need to get my space sorted before I set up new tanks.
I've got a 30g QT up, a temporary 15g Betta tank, a 5g with pencilfish fry developing and my main 75g community tank.
Plans are to scale down to the 75g, the permanent Betta tank and then a mudskipper tank. I'd also like to experiment with a nano Dutch planted tank if all goes well!
I might get carried away and plan the mudskipper tank in depth, in which case I'll have questions to ask sooner than later
Sorry for the mini essay ahead, I just love mudskippers. None of this is personal experience, but I too got caught up in a mudskipper infatuation (haven't fully recovered, to be honest) and did a bunch of research. Maybe this is stuff you've already read, in which case, this is for anyone else who hasn't looked into mudskippers before! They're really neat little fish.
It's important to distinguish between the African mudskippers and the dwarf Indian mudskippers. The latter are much smaller, as their name implies, and are less aggressive/territorial than the African skippers. For the Indian mudskippers, I've heard that three can work well in a 20 long or a 30gal, although a 40 breeder would be fantastic with all that potential floor space. I think a single one would still do okay, and would be fine in a 20 long or equivalent. The Indian mudskippers are still territorial, but they're not as violent. It's mostly occasional displaying and if they do go after each other, it rarely causes damage. They do live near conspecifics in the wild.
They also need surprisingly little water. From what I've heard, they tend to actually spend most of their time out of it and just go for quick dips, so you'd want the enclosure to have a lot of land surface area for them to explore. Their natural habitat is brackish sandy/muddy shores with mangroves. Most plants can't handle the salt, so there isn't really much in those habitats aside from the mangroves. Of course, planting some of the substrate with salt-tolerant plants would be nice (especially if you aren't necessarily going for a biotope), but it would probably also be really enriching if you could get a structure that mimics the aerial roots of mangroves—it would be something for the mudskippers to crawl under. You can buy real mangroves and grow them, but they get rather large.
Mudskippers also burrow into the sand/mud. It would take a truly massive enclosure to get them to make their own burrows, I think, but you might be able to replicate it to some degree by burying tubes in the substrate. It's somewhat horizontal rather than vertical burrowing, so you'd need an elevated bank of substrate. You could place tubes horizontally in the bank and pack substrate around them so they're buried, but leave the opening uncovered of course. It could be fun for the skippers to hide in, and might help allow them to replicate more of their natural behaviors!
They are all wild-caught as well, as they need their massive burrows to breed successfully. Nobody has been able to breed them in captivity, not even public aquariums with professional facilities.
It's important to distinguish between the African mudskippers and the dwarf Indian mudskippers. The latter are much smaller, as their name implies, and are less aggressive/territorial than the African skippers. For the Indian mudskippers, I've heard that three can work well in a 20 long or a 30gal, although a 40 breeder would be fantastic with all that potential floor space. I think a single one would still do okay, and would be fine in a 20 long or equivalent. The Indian mudskippers are still territorial, but they're not as violent. It's mostly occasional displaying and if they do go after each other, it rarely causes damage. They do live near conspecifics in the wild.
They also need surprisingly little water. From what I've heard, they tend to actually spend most of their time out of it and just go for quick dips, so you'd want the enclosure to have a lot of land surface area for them to explore. Their natural habitat is brackish sandy/muddy shores with mangroves. Most plants can't handle the salt, so there isn't really much in those habitats aside from the mangroves. Of course, planting some of the substrate with salt-tolerant plants would be nice (especially if you aren't necessarily going for a biotope), but it would probably also be really enriching if you could get a structure that mimics the aerial roots of mangroves—it would be something for the mudskippers to crawl under. You can buy real mangroves and grow them, but they get rather large.
Mudskippers also burrow into the sand/mud. It would take a truly massive enclosure to get them to make their own burrows, I think, but you might be able to replicate it to some degree by burying tubes in the substrate. It's somewhat horizontal rather than vertical burrowing, so you'd need an elevated bank of substrate. You could place tubes horizontally in the bank and pack substrate around them so they're buried, but leave the opening uncovered of course. It could be fun for the skippers to hide in, and might help allow them to replicate more of their natural behaviors!
They are all wild-caught as well, as they need their massive burrows to breed successfully. Nobody has been able to breed them in captivity, not even public aquariums with professional facilities.
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I've kept mudskippers for several years in my paludarium. You can easily keep multiple mudskippers in one environment. But be sure that there's enough space to ensure that every single mudskipper can have their own steady spot to rest. For they hardly rest together. They also socialize with another at times.
It's also nice to watch a male flare with his dorsal when he tries to court a female.
I've always purchased young specimens. They got so used to another that they met up with another frequently. Especially, on the front side of the paludarium. And they got that tame that I could have them on my hand.
It's also nice to watch a male flare with his dorsal when he tries to court a female.
OP
OP
Firstly, thank you for sharing your research! I think that I would likely be using my 29 gallon tank, that has a tank footprint of 75x35 cm. I think that the smaller indian mudskippers would be more likely for me to find, and I always prefer the smaller species out of two options, so it feels like they have more space. I would keep a single mudskipper I think, because I wouldn't have space for more tanks if things got territorial between a trio.
If all goes well, I'll set the tank up with plants that can grow in brackish water and can also grow emersed or partially emersed. Some of the common anubius plants for example. I would like to do some mangrove root-ish driftwood, and maybe a real mangrove plant if I can find a tiny sapling. So maybe a biotope base with loads of extra plants thrown in!
Do you have any knowledge or research about how fish waste and the nitrogen cycle factor in for the land portion of the tank? I've never kept a terrarium, terrestrial creatures or semi-aquatic creatures before.
OP
OP
It looks great! I really like the video you've attached.
I've asked this to Seisage as well, but do you have any knowledge or research about how fish waste and the nitrogen cycle factor in for the land portion of the tank? I've never kept a terrarium, terrestrial creatures or semi-aquatic creatures before.
Just keep in mind that having a ton of emersed plants will limit your land space! I can't say mudskippers never climb on plants, as I haven't kept them, but from what I understand, they prefer hanging out on the substrate.
To be honest, I don't really know. My knowledge is lacking in terms of terrariums/paludariums and how the waste cycle works in them. I do know that in bioactive terrariums, there are usually clean up crew organisms. In terrestrial systems, it's usually thinks like springtails and little isopods. For a sandy paludarium... I wonder if you could get some sort of amphipod. Around here, we have really large, chunky amphipods commonly known as "beach hoppers". They hang out on the wet-packed sand on beaches. Their niche is seems like it'd be a global one, so I'm sure there are beach hoppers of a variety of species around the world. They tolerate being out of the water really well, so something like them might be a good clean up solution, although maybe only if you can find really small ones... the large beach hoppers I'm used to would probably be delicious snacks for a mudskipper. If you live within an easy distance of a beach, it could be worth rooting through the sand and seeing what you find. Try to look in an estuarine beach or mudflat, that way you'll know organisms from there will tolerate brackish water.
Otherwise, I think growing some emersed plants would do a lot of heavy lifting, especially if you can find salt-tolerant ones that grow long roots.
Mudskippers are pretty messy fish though, I think mostly in their eating habits. I'm actually not sure how much nitrogen waste they produce themselves. You might be able to cut down on waste by feeding them on a little plate for easy clean up.
I didn't use a filter. And I still don't use it in my paludarium. The stones in there are doing a great job as a natural filter. Those mudskippers do like to climb on anything which includes plants as well. And if they'll make it also on glass. So, I don't do anything to cycle the water part. I'm keeping this paludarium for years now. And I hardly have maintenance needed. It's all natural.
They look like slow creaturers when they're at a spot in the paludarium but they can move very fast.
They're already good when they have rocks and wood in there. Plants are actually of no importance to them. But some moss on the rocks or wood could absorb their waste a bit.
They're very fond of shrimp, daphnia and springtails. And using moss in your paluradium can also be a good base to the springtails and colonize the moss. Which makes those mudskippers very happy.
They look like slow creaturers when they're at a spot in the paludarium but they can move very fast.
They're already good when they have rocks and wood in there. Plants are actually of no importance to them. But some moss on the rocks or wood could absorb their waste a bit.
They're very fond of shrimp, daphnia and springtails. And using moss in your paluradium can also be a good base to the springtails and colonize the moss. Which makes those mudskippers very happy.
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