[dodgefate]

Hi all and thanks to take the time to read this! I purchased a, well it was sold to me as a Nigerian mud skipper. I currently have him/her housed in a 20 gallon tank with a magnetic floating turtle dock and landscape coming out of the water. The store kept him in fresh water so I am slowly raising the salt level in my tank for him/her. I have been keeping the water temperature at 80 degrees and I have a hood on the tank and it stays humid for him/her. I had researched them online and I think I'm doing it right so far? Let me know what else I need to do if anything. He/she is eating very good and seems ok for now. Another question that I wanted to ask is I recently purchased this: Underwater Package Deals - Atlantis Underwater Islands it is very large and it looks like the skipper would have no problem going in and out.... Just wanted to see if it would be safe to move him/her to my 55 gallon tank and does anyone think he/she would use it?

 

[Byron]

I had a mudskipper way back in the mid 1980's. I used marine salt to turn the water brackish, but I cannot remember to what degree. Hopefully other members with brackish or marine experience can help out here on the salinity issue.

Aside from that, I would leave the mudskipper in the 20g on its own. They must have brackish water. And I used chunks of wood (Malaysian Driftwood or ironwood works well) to create a "land" area at one end of the tank.

There is a lot of info on this site
Mudskippers

I fed mine live tubifex worms once a week, and frozen "fish" foods other times. Frozen bloodworms (but not too often), shrimp, squid were all eagerly devoured. It became quite a "pet" too, it always swam over and out onto the wood where I fed it, and ate from my fingers. It got so excited one evening it jumped out of the tank when I opened it to feed, and I was chasing it around the room.:lol:

Byron.

 

[Olympia]

Agree. .. If he is indeed from Nigeria, he would most likely be a Periophthalmus barbarus, not one of the more common ones from Asia.

Also, hilarious... Picturing you running around a room trying to catch a small fish!

 

[dodgefate]

Thanks Byron! That is a great site. As of now the mud skipper is doing great. I have been feeding him frozen blood worms and when the cube defrost he is all over it I also have feeder guppies in the tank and the first day he went nuts with em catching them and devowering them. I also give him live crickets as a treat. I have been raising the salinity of the tank sloooowwwlly to not shock him. The salinity is about a .50 as of now. He still is a bit scared of me but the other day he let me hold him in my hand even though he was a lil apprehensive at first.
Olympia: he is defiantly a Periophthalmus barbarous after reading about them that is him 100%! Thanks I was trying to find out exactly what he was! If you guys come across any more info or if there is something I should be doing/not doing Let me know!

 

[Kuddos 2 U]

I caught a salamander last year in order to save it from the winter frost. Didn't want it to die so I decided to keep it. It is still alive right now and it goes inside the filter sometimes. I feed it crickets and shrimp pellets when it is looking for food underwater. I also found millions of scuds that filled up about 4 xtra large ziploc bags. I didn't have room for them so I freeze dried some and the others, I sun dried them. I also had to wash them because they where living off of the water that had been left behind in puddles, so the water was all dirty and muddy.

 

[dodgefate]

So from what I have read, Mudskippers spend 80% of their time out of the water. Mine has a nice 50/50 split..... Is this a good thing or a bad thing or should I just not worry?

 

[Byron]

So from what I have read, Mudskippers spend 80% of their time out of the water. Mine has a nice 50/50 split..... Is this a good thing or a bad thing or should I just not worry?

Half water/half "land" is fine. You want the water sufficient for the mudskipper to be able to swim a bit. Also, more water volume means cleaner water, and mudskippers are fish and thus need clean water.