Mudskipper tank design help

[ecarter]

Hello!

I recently decided to try keeping mudskippers (thanks, @Zenzo!). I got a 29g and put in a special order for dwarf Indian mudskippers at my local fish store. I have no idea when they'll arrive, but I want to make sure their home is ready when they do. I could really use some feedback on the current setup.

I have about 5g of water in here, a sponge filter, and a small pump to make sure the filtered water fully circulates around the tank. I'll put a heater in there, too. And I'm planning to add some more sand. I've also order some red mangroves to go into the terracotta pots.

The goal is brackish, but I believe the local fish store keeps mudskippers in freshwater, so I plan to start there and slowly acclimate them up.

Does this seem like a reasonable tank design? Should I add more land and less water? Any advice is very welcome!

Also, I'd like to get 3-4, but I'm not sure the tank is big enough. No other tank mates planned, maybe some nerite snails.

Thank you!

[Zenzo]

@ecarter A 29 gallon should be fine for 3-4 Indian mudskippers. The tank will definitely look better with the mangroves, and they will also aid in having some sight breaks. My advice would be to reposition the pots to allow you to fashion some type of lid or screen top (maybe move the pots rearward. More sand isn't really necessary other than for anchoring the stones. Keep in mind that they spend more time out of the water than in the water, so the more "islands" the better. Give us an update when the mangroves and skippers come in!

[Tlindsey]

On 3/29/2024 at 11:18 AM, ecarter said:

Hello!

I recently decided to try keeping mudskippers (thanks, @Zenzo!). I got a 29g and put in a special order for dwarf Indian mudskippers at my local fish store. I have no idea when they'll arrive, but I want to make sure their home is ready when they do. I could really use some feedback on the current setup.

I have about 5g of water in here, a sponge filter, and a small pump to make sure the filtered water fully circulates around the tank. I'll put a heater in there, too. And I'm planning to add some more sand. I've also order some red mangroves to go into the terracotta pots.

The goal is brackish, but I believe the local fish store keeps mudskippers in freshwater, so I plan to start there and slowly acclimate them up.

Does this seem like a reasonable tank design? Should I add more land and less water? Any advice is very welcome!

Also, I'd like to get 3-4, but I'm not sure the tank is big enough. No other tank mates planned, maybe some nerite snails.

Thank you!

 

What type of lid will be used? I've read enclosure should be humid. 

[ecarter]

Thank you for the super fast reply! And the advice.

I'm not sure what you mean about repositioning the pots. My plan is to actually build an acrylic box as tank top, so I'll have another 6" of clearance without losing humidity. Does that address your point?

[Tlindsey]

On 3/29/2024 at 11:45 AM, ecarter said:

My plan is to actually build an acrylic box as tank top, so I'll have another 6" of clearance without losing humidity. Does that address your point?

That's great. 

[ecarter]

Got the mangroves! They look nice and healthy, just more curly than I was expecting. I've got them staked and not actually planted because I read that it's better to let them grow down and embed themselves in the substrate.

I'm still messing with tank design. I'd love to be able to take advantage of the height of the tank and the attached was inspired by @Zenzo's video on making a floating island. Basically a floating surface area with about 15g below (maybe for a fig 8 puffer or some other brackish goby). In practice I'm not sure I actually like it. I'm also concerned mudskippers won't be comfortable since it's a bit of a dropoff to the water.

Anyway, definitely having fun trying to find an approach I like and getting into things like expanding foam.

[macdaddy36]

I wonder if it might look better with white sand to match the color of the foam. Looks like you'll have some happy mudskippers!

[ecarter]

Totally agree. My plan was actually to paint the foam black. The white-black combo is really intense.

[macdaddy36]

Another thing that I have always wanted to do was make a 3d background with foam. You could make a 3D back ground and have the islands attached to that to make it look more natural.

[ecarter]

All right! After messing around with a lot of different set-ups, I finally decided that I just needed a 40g breeder and to ditch the foam/floating island idea in the 29g. It never really looked good and it was hard to get the 1/4" water level that I wanted in at least some areas. 

So here's the current set-up with inhabitants! We have 6 Dwarf Indian Mudskippers shipped from https://www.aqua-imports.com/ (Dylan has been great and super helpful!) with 3 red mangroves. The water is at a salinity of 4.5 ppt (1.004 specific gravity). They're happily eating freeze dried mysis shrimp.