Mudskipper Tank And Mates Questions:

[vaine111]

Well Monday or Tuesday I'll be picking up 4 Vietnamese Mudskippers and later I will be adding a few Fiddler and Red-clawed Crabs and possibly a pair of Mollies.

I can't wait!

I just sold my pair of JDs that were in my 55g and will be putting them in that. I bought some play sand for the substrate and will be adding some driftwood, mangrove plants, large smooth rocks and a waterfall filter that is made by Tetra specially for newt and turtle tanks.

I have a few questions to ask though.
Are Vietnamese Mudskipper's temperments the same as Indian Mudskippers?
I have been researching and decided I wanted to go with Indians and when I asked my LFS to see if they could get some they said "we have Vietnamese on the list" so I told them to grab them without researching them. Now I can't find any good information about them on the web.

I was thinking to aim for a salinity of 1.010 but was wondering if 1.005 would be better, and about how much salt per gallon would it take to reach those salinities?

What type of lighting would I need for mangrove plants and are there any other types of brackish plants that would look good planted in the land part of the tank?
I wanted to get some type that stays low and gets bushy and/or possibly something that flowers. And of course the lighting would have to be good for them also.

Their diet would consist of some live foods such as crickets, blackworms, carpenter ants, ghost shrimp and hopefully the occasional Molly offspring. Dry soaked foods such as massivore pellets, tetra colorbits and if they will attempt it I will try algea wafers. And frozen foods such as shrimp and bloodworms.

I think I have everything covered that I need/want and the questions that I wanted to ask.
Thanks in advance for any help or insight you can supply,
Aaron

 

[vaine111]

Anyone ever tried Samolus valerandi?
Looks like a nice palnt.

 

[Rythic]

Well Monday or Tuesday I'll be picking up 4 Vietnamese Mudskippers and later I will be adding a few Fiddler and Red-clawed Crabs and possibly a pair of Mollies.

I can't wait!

I just sold my pair of JDs that were in my 55g and will be putting them in that. I bought some play sand for the substrate and will be adding some driftwood, mangrove plants, large smooth rocks and a waterfall filter that is made by Tetra specially for newt and turtle tanks.

I have a few questions to ask though.
Are Vietnamese Mudskipper's temperments the same as Indian Mudskippers?
I have been researching and decided I wanted to go with Indians and when I asked my LFS to see if they could get some they said "we have Vietnamese on the list" so I told them to grab them without researching them. Now I can't find any good information about them on the web.

I was thinking to aim for a salinity of 1.010 but was wondering if 1.005 would be better, and about how much salt per gallon would it take to reach those salinities?

What type of lighting would I need for mangrove plants and are there any other types of brackish plants that would look good planted in the land part of the tank?
I wanted to get some type that stays low and gets bushy and/or possibly something that flowers. And of course the lighting would have to be good for them also.

Their diet would consist of some live foods such as crickets, blackworms, carpenter ants, ghost shrimp and hopefully the occasional Molly offspring. Dry soaked foods such as massivore pellets, tetra colorbits and if they will attempt it I will try algea wafers. And frozen foods such as shrimp and bloodworms.

I think I have everything covered that I need/want and the questions that I wanted to ask.
Thanks in advance for any help or insight you can supply,
Aaron

Vietnamese will have the same temperament as the Indian species. When researching them, just read up on the Indians to get your info. They will be fine with the crabs. I have fiddler and red clawed in my tank, everyone has been doing great. I keep mine between .008-.012 and that seems to work great. You may also look for some Olive Nerite Snails. They help keep the algae in check. I feed mine crickets, ghost shrimp, emerald entree, blood worms, brine shrimp and they recently started eating flakes. I recently put in some of my over growing population of guppies in my tank to see if they will start eating some of the fry.

Anyone ever tried Samolus valerandi?
Looks like a nice palnt.

I've tried multiple different plants, but those crabs ate em up over time, so you can try them, just don't know how long you will keep them lol. They never touch my mangroves though, which is weird but good. Though one of my red clawed tried eating my White Mangrove but guess he didnt like it since he stopped eating it.

 

[Cichlaholics Anonymous]

as for feeding, I always fed my mudskippers a fair amount of frozen and fresh food, but the staple was still NLS pellets

 

[vaine111]

Thank you so much Rythic! I really loved the look of your tank. Very impressive and gives me a look that I really want to accomplish.
I'm going to do mine about the same. I am going to be using my 55 gallon and will be having 2 seperate land areas divided by a approximately 18"x12"x12"(deep in the center) water area with a really nice waterfall filter http://reviews.petco.com/3554/102525/reviews.htm . I was thinking to put the water area on the right side but I think this will give them more territories.
I realy hate the look of setups that are completely water with a few pieces of driftwood or floating devices to supply a water retreat for the skippies.
Oh and I guess SG readings are without the 1 I suppose?
Thanks so much for replying and the helpful information.

Thanks for the feeding information Cichlaholics! Do you pre-soak the pellets? I wanted to mainly feed them on land and am not sure if I should feed it to them dry or not.

 

[vaine111]

Well I got a nice 40g breeder tank and I think I found how I want to do my mudskippers tank, so after a brief period as a QT tank here for about a month I'm going to start putting it together.
Here's some plans and a some what picture of that it's going to look like...

If those don't show up for some people here is the link of the page where I am getting them from http://badmanstropicalfish.com/paludarium/paludarium3.html along with how to build it.

I'm thinking of coating the Lexzan in sand opposed to how it's done in the pic though.