Mudskipper mangrove?

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L

L021

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 13, 2009
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Ontario CA
I've got my eyes on mud-skippers, and my 55 gallon will be empty this Christmas when I upgrade to a 75 so my acara won't be cramped. I understand basic brackish principles (I kept bumblebee gobies once) but I need some help with the skippers in particular.

1: How should I get the tank to have half full with sand on one side and water on the other? I'm considering use of a divider, but I'm not sure if it will work long term.

2: Plastic or live plants, if live what kinds in the water and what kinds on land?

3: I would like an Atlantic mud-skipper, could they be kept with other atlantics or livebearers?

How should i position the driftwood to be climbed on? I made a concept with MS paint, but it's barely readable.
Brack.bmp
 
1) Use the divider - it'll act as a retaining wall and stop the sand from 'slumping' after a while. You can maybe use several dividers at different heights to create a beach with a decent slope.

2) Rather go for plastic plants, as most plants won't live in brackish anyway, and are a bit of a headache IMO. The one group real plants that I recommend is one of the magrove species, whichever one you can find. They can be planted in the water or on land, but be sure the the roots are at least getting wet and there is enough space above the tank for these potentially tall plants.

3) Atlantics can be kept as a male/female pair, so long as there is enough space for the male to establish a territory and the female has space to get away should things turn nasty. Rather don't keep anything in the water unless you can provide enough swimming space and suitable filtration, which can be hard to do for some mudskipper setups.

I think you should put the wood in the water, and leave the beach relatively open. Then have the wood projecting a little bit out of the water, so that the skippers have an extra place to climb around on.
 
^thanks! I've been thinking about an internal filter so I might be able to try a platy or two some time or another. I'll move the driftwood area to the water, i've seen some nice setups here like that. Another thing, how do people do that rock wall type thing? I would really like to try it on my tank, maybe with a water pump spraying a bit to moistureize. Can I keep my flourescents? How deep should the water be? I don't want my wee skippers to drown :(
 
Juwel makes some rocks backgrounds, as do some other aquatics companies, you just needs to look around a bit. The down side is the price of these backgrounds, so DIY (normally out of polystyrene) is another option. Use Google to find some examples.

Flourescents are okay but keep them well above the spray areas of any pumps you may use.

And finally, most people recommend using no more than 10cm of water depth with mudskippers, although some people have has deeper water provided that sufficient land is provided.
 
Can I use foam polystyrene, or would that get into the water?
 
i've used foam, and you may consider placing branches in the water if you want archer fish. BTW, crabs are great looking in a mangrove enviroment.
 
I'm not sure if an archer is such a great idea if the tank is a 55 gallon, which will only be half full, and a half goes up to a beach area...
 
Archers need quite a bit of water space, something that isn't normally present in a mudskipper setup.
 
^for future planning purposes, without beach or skippers, would an jackulatrix fit in a 55?
 
A single T. jaculatrix, maybe. But I wouldn't recommend it, as they are quite active fish like to be in a small group at least, also bearing in mind that they can grow to just under a foot in length... you're looking at a 70 gallon or more for a smaller group.
 
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