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Well I've only got four fish so it won't take too much to show all of them. I hope to take pics of them today since I haven't taken pics of two of them before, and it's been such a long time since I've taken pics of my other two (the last time I took a picture of my mudskipper was two years ago and my royal plec was even longer!).

I'm gonna start off with my mudskipper. I think it's a her, but I don't really have a male to compare to, on top of the fact I don't know which specific species she is.

Checking out her reflection... I also wiped the glass after taking this pic, lol.


Full body view, you can see her shiny speckles.


And a close-up of her head.


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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Sweet. How long have you had her?

It would be coming around on to the third year now, but it seems like I've had her so much longer than that. Really, IMO, mudskippers should be much more popular than they are; especially since they're tough as nails! They're said to be brackish, but my skipper doesn't care either way. I've kept her in FW for years now, which makes it easier for my parents since I have to leave my fish at home.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

I'm pretty sure that she's a Periophthalmus barbarus, the Atlantic Mudskipper (actually, a bit of a misnomer because you'll find them in the western Pacific all the way out to Guam). There seems to be a lot of variability in how this fish looks, but I found enough pictures identifying it as P. barbarus to think that's what it is.

Granted, I am in no way an expert on Gobiidae and even less of one on Oxudercinae, but that's what my untrained eye tells me. Plus, it's the only one I could find which shows up with any sort of frequency in the aquarium trade.

You're guess is as good as mine, hehe. The P. barbarus in that link definitely is the closest looking one I've seen, so that's probably what she is.

I waited a little while and she stuck her head out of the water for me.


You can actually see the speckling a lot better when she's out of water. The "land" is a cheap floating turtle rock, but it serves its purpose.


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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

What do you feed her?

I've always been a bit curious about mudskippers, and wouldn't mind picking one up should the chance arise.

Edit: I are good with the writing of the English.

I mostly feed her shrimp pellets, which she eats with gusto. She also takes frozen bloodworms. She'd probably go for insects if I fed her those, but that's a little too much trouble for me.

Here are some more pics! Fish just don't want to cooperate to let their pics get taken. Also, my hands seem to be shaky because the pics STILL come out blurry. Two of them I took the pics in a breeding trap.

Full male Entomocorus radiosus catfish.


I know he's looking kind of dead, but that's just how auchenipterids are. Since I'm paranoid, though, this guy always makes me think I've killed him somehow, but he's just chilling out.


The Royal plec is being shy as ever.


My juvenile Black Lancer that I'm growing up. Took a while for him to calm down after being caught, not like the Entomocorus which sank like a rock.


And the other side.


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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

This pic came out rather well.


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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

I don't think I've ever seen a mudskipper on here before? I didn't know they had those bright specks on them either. Kind of a cute thing. I wouldn't mind having one if I had a giant tank.

A mudskipper certainly doesn't need a "giant" tank. Comparitively speaking it wouldn't need any bigger of a tank than any other fish of a similar size would need, it just needs something that it can crawl up onto. They aren't exactly active swimmers.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Wow, you clearly have extremely interesting species in your tank, even if they aren't as you say very active.
Makes for good photo specimens when they don't move much.
Great pics, thanks for sharing.

The Entomocorus might not be active during the day, but at night he whizzes back and forth as good as any danio, and trust me he takes the 125 gallon aquarium to its full advantage, despite just being a couple inches long! He's a completely different fish once the lights go off. And the skipper might not be an active "swimmer", but she does move around in her own mudskipper way, like hopping or crawling, hehe. Or skipping, I suppose!

But truth be told, it is that they are interesting why I have them in the first place. I'm definitely one for the oddballs, hehe.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Very interesting species that you keep. Any interest in sharing a little bit more once in a while about them? I saw a mudskipper recently at a paludarium-like display in a fancy petstore and it was quite big. How big is your's?

My mudskipper is about 4.5" from nose to tip of its tail; I think that's basically almost adult length.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Picked up this little guy up today. The LFS said they had him for a while and grew him up a bit (he's about 3.5" right now), which is a good sign since that means he's pretty well acclimated to tank life.


Poor guy is missing his left pectoral fin, but that's okay, he appears to be healthy otherwise.


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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Once you posted in the S. decorus thread in BFF, you just couldn't resist, could you?

Nice fish. The lack-of-finnage gives him character.

Couldn't resist at all. Really attractive, and this guy was only $10! It was almost coincidence that I found one so soon after looking into the species.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Periophthalmus can grow quite large; if I'm not mistaken, they are the largest of the mudskippers.

Nice L-330. What size is it?

Hmm, the mudskipper I saw in this store was definitely much bigger but still very cute. 4.5 inches is something I might consider later on. Where did you get yours? They are rarely offered for sale, at least where I live.

Really like your most recent purchase!

Hmmm, well then I guess I'm not sure how close my mudskipper is to adult size, though I've had her for a few years already. By now she might even be stunted. I haven't actually seen a skipper bigger than mine in person, now that I think of it. It wouldn't be much of a problem to upgrade for a bigger tank, though.

Yeah, skippers are rare though. This skipper was the last one that I've seen sold around here; shortly after I bought this skipper (with something along the lines of "Time to order in some more mudskippers!" from the guy who bagged him up for me), the LFS that I bought it from went out of business. The prior time I saw mudskippers I bought them from another LFS; sadly all of those specimens died in just a few weeks. That LFS is also gone, though. Strange.

I guess I didn't give it much thought, but I guess technically my Royal is what some people call a Watermelon plec, eh? It's got to be about 8", give or take an inch; I haven't actually taken a ruler to it in a while.

I like the Synodontis too, but he doesn't come out very much. For some reason I was expecting him to be less shy, which is somewhat silly since I actually only spotted him in the LFS by a bit of him sticking out of a rock, lol. I hope he gets braver over time. Perhaps I need to get dither fish.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.