Tank Journal Archive

Dr. Schell

The Fuckin' Doc
Jul 12, 2011
1,972
1,228
Brisbane
That is fantastic news, and many thanks for supplying the fantastic photo. I am still trying to catch larvae from my pair. However they are not showing the same willingness to reproduce as the did last year. Best of luck in rearing the young and please keep me posted on your progress.
 

chrispc66

Member
Apr 24, 2012
317
160
What an awe inspiring set up. Would love to something like this one day. I love mangrove forests brings back a lot of childhood memories.

I used to watch those little skippers for hours, and just loved the tide changes. I used to catch a few small mud crabs for bream fishing too.

Thanks very much for sharing. Just awesome....:)
 

Ian G

Member
Sep 11, 2012
808
393
Nowhere
Funny thing about skippers. You expect to see them on mudflats & of course you do. What surprised me though was seeing them scampering around on the cliffs at East Point in Darwin.

I lived there for 4 years and fished East Point a lot. It is a rocky cliff with a tidal drop of about 8 metres. A great spot for catching reef tip sharks.

The nearest mudflats/mangroves are about 9km away yet I would often see them on the rocks at mid tide. Keep in mind that at mid tide it's still a cliff with 4 metres of water underneath.

The skippers there were never bigger than about 3cm.
 

The Reefuge

Administrator
Jul 9, 2011
4,152
1,929
Ignore this post. It is here for a reference only.

Tag: Mudskipper Last Update by The Reefuge Admin"
 

Ian G

Member
Sep 11, 2012
808
393
Nowhere
are you shore that they were mudskippers and not rock-hopping blennies. They do look similar to each other! Rock hoppers look somthing like the animals at this location:

http://evolutionaryroutes.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/fastily-800px-leapingblennies3600ppx1.jpg
I can't really tell from that pic, I would need a much closer look plus I haven't lived there since 2002 so, quite possibly they were. Being it was on a cliff face, I could never catch the little buggers although I got close a couple of times.

I so love mudskippers. I've been trying to source some in Vic since 2006 without success. Back in my teen years I worked in an aquarium and the owner had a tank full but never sold any. He also had a very tame one called Fred in a tank on his counter that was a close too 4 inches long (don't know species) and part of my job was to catch live flies in the shop and put them in Fred's lidded tank. He would then leap and catch them at his leisure.:) We used to also go out in search of tubifex worms for him in the local creek feeder arms.

Amazing creatures.
 

Dr. Schell

The Fuckin' Doc
Jul 12, 2011
1,972
1,228
Brisbane
If I could guarantee that it would reach you in good condition, I would send you the P. takita that I have. However I like these creatures too much to risk their safety
 

Ian G

Member
Sep 11, 2012
808
393
Nowhere
Yes I agree. A mate in Darwin offered to send some but it's too far. Plus the airport is nearly a 6hr turnaround for me.

I'll find some eventually.
 

Scorpaenidae

Member
Apr 2, 2013
3
0
Very disappointed when I came to the end of this thread, for no other reason than the fact that the thread came to an end. What an amazing project. The only consolation I have is that the thread is not at a complete end and will continue to grow (fingers crossed) and you will document your success. I just stumbled on your video on youtube and followed the link to the thread. Fantastic! Good luck with the breeding and I cant wait to read about rearing the fry.
 

Scorpaenidae

Member
Apr 2, 2013
3
0
It just occurred to me there are some weekly and monthly timers available on ebay where you could more accurately control the times of the tides, and have them 1 hour later everyday. Considering how important tidal variations are in the successful breeding of the species, perhaps a more accurate tidal cycle will yield better results?
 

Jules

Member
Jun 17, 2013
15
10
Dear Dr Shell.
I am really inspired by the way you set up your tank! For almost 2 years now, I've got a small tank with 2 happy mudskippers in it. However, I want to upgrade my tank to a way bigger one, and try and recreate a mangrove environnement. My Tidal system will consist of 2 pumps instead of one. One return pump from my sump will be on all the time (for filtration), and one will be controlled by an self programmed AVR microcontroller with a real time chip. This way, I can accurately recreate the tides, not being bound to the 24 hour setup of timers :P. When the second pump kicks in, my lower overflow wont be able to handle the flow, so the water level will rise to my second overflow. I am even using RGB LED's to create a naturalistic sunset and sunrise. My mudskippers will be housed together with Fiddler crabs.
I do still have a few questions. I am going to use mud from the mudflats of the Wadden Sea in The Netherlands. Do I need to de-contaminate this mud (remove all the critters or bacteria living in it)? And, what is the sailinity level you used in the tank :)? And finally, how did you keep your sand/mud from flowing into the water? I know you used some sort of plastig guard or whatnot, but how did you do it?
Keep up the good work, and many thanks from The Netherlands!
 

Dr. Schell

The Fuckin' Doc
Jul 12, 2011
1,972
1,228
Brisbane
Dear Dr Shell.
I am really inspired by the way you set up your tank! For almost 2 years now, I've got a small tank with 2 happy mudskippers in it. However, I want to upgrade my tank to a way bigger one, and try and recreate a mangrove environnement. My Tidal system will consist of 2 pumps instead of one. One return pump from my sump will be on all the time (for filtration), and one will be controlled by an self programmed AVR microcontroller with a real time chip. This way, I can accurately recreate the tides, not being bound to the 24 hour setup of timers :p. When the second pump kicks in, my lower overflow wont be able to handle the flow, so the water level will rise to my second overflow. I am even using RGB LED's to create a naturalistic sunset and sunrise. My mudskippers will be housed together with Fiddler crabs.
I do still have a few questions. I am going to use mud from the mudflats of the Wadden Sea in The Netherlands. Do I need to de-contaminate this mud (remove all the critters or bacteria living in it)? And, what is the sailinity level you used in the tank :)? And finally, how did you keep your sand/mud from flowing into the water? I know you used some sort of plastig guard or whatnot, but how did you do it?
Keep up the good work, and many thanks from The Netherlands!
If you are going to use natural mud, please ensure that you only collect the 'aerobic' portion (ie the top 2cm). This will ensure that you do not end up with a highly acidic environment when initiall set up. Unless you have structrues in place to reduce receedence, fiddler crabs will remove large portions of mud and this may result in a collapse of the land portion of the 'mud-flat'. With 2 pumps going sunultaniously, you may have to watch that sand is not caught in the pumps (thereby resultaing in mechanical wear). I avoid this by having the water pass though a filter sock prior to being exposed to a pump. You may with also to have some form of surface skimmer as when the incomming tide comes in, sand is dislodged fromt eh surface of the land portion and will remain boyant.
I use a plastic gauze (allows water to pass but not sand/mud) on the bank of the slope. THis sits approcimatly 1cm under the sand area. The sand/mud is so sticky, it adheres to this area.

I wish you all the best with your set up. If I can be of further help, please do not hesitate to contact me.
If would be fantastic for you to create a thread on this forum showing the step by step construction of the set up that you proposed.

Kind regards, Chris.
 

Jules

Member
Jun 17, 2013
15
10
Dear Chris
Thanks :D Ill try to create something with that plastic gauze you suggested. But, plastic gauze is not that ridgid right? How did you fasten it? I am planning on housing just one pair of fiddlers, so I am hoping this will minimalize the amount of mud they remove. The water going through my overflow, flows down into my diy filter system :) This way, no sand can possibly come into the pumps. I will make a new thread showing the whole deal! Since I am a student, I do not have that much money, so everything I do for this build is either second hand or DIY. For instance, because I programmed my "aquarium controller" myself, and soldered the LED's myself, the total price for the circuitry including the lights is below 50 euros :) (LED riggs I saw at the local aquarium shop cost over 500 euros :P)
Anyway, many thanks for your response :) Begin August I am moving to a new home, thats where I am going to build the whole thing, so around then Ill make a thread

Regards, Jules
 

Pompey

Member
Aug 2, 2013
1
0
Hi Doc, Jules and others (Doc, I feel as if I know you as I've followed this thread for a few weeks now - great stuff)
I'm new to this forum and from the UK

There should be some pictures below of my 'set-up' - a 2 foot x 1 foot freshwater tank with 3 skippers - not sure what type yet - and about 4 gallons of water.

I got my 3 skippers, on a fairly casual basis, a week or so ago, as I had a couple a few years ago and liked them. I had crabs in with them last time, and they took over.
This time I'm just having skippers on their own. However 2 of the skippers have started to try and make nests in the coconut shells (see photo), which I made and put in just for them to muck about in and yes, those are bamboo kebab sticks used to keep them near the surface of the water! (tip if you use coconut shells, run them through the dishwasher to sterilise them or weird 'snotty stuff' grows off them).

Clearly there's not enough sand substrate for my skips to make a nest so I'm going to try something bigger now and take some pics as I go. The set up won't look as good as the Doc's but I too want to see if I can get them to reproduce so we'll see how it goes.

Doc - couple of questions for you. I've read all of what you've written so they should be new questions.

How long do you have your lights on for? Do you adjust for seasons? In the UK its's summer now but the winter can get pretty dark, cold and miserable.
When I was in Oz a few weeks ago (perversely) it got really dark very early, it being your winter, and about 15 degrees.

You, I think, have only 1 male but I've got 2 males and 1 female. Will this be a problem do you think in a 2 footer (I take it that only the males nest)?

Have you any (man-made) ideas on how to help the nest from caving in? Any silt round our shores is likely to be pretty toxic so I've got some really fine sand mixed with courser stuff to try. I know that roots from plants help keep structure so I'll try that as I believe they need some form of air chamber to lay the eggs (and I believe they oxygenate it with air from their mouths). I was thinking of some sort of little upside down cups, randomly dispersed in the hope that the male might use those. Doc. I saw what looked like cardboard under your 'shore' and wondered whether you used this and punched a hole through when skippy wasn't looking and he could do the rest? It would be great if such a chamber was close to the glass of the aquarium so that one could see inside but I think that unlikely. I think someone earlier on this forum tried 'J pipes' to replicate an air chamber but that didn't work.

Does the silt need to need to go through these oxygenated and de-oxygenated stages Doc? Presumably each tide brings in relatively oxygenated water? I'm going to try and replicate a tide too and understand your double timer idea.

How deep do you think the sand/silt needs to be for them to nest?

Doc - have you got any other ideas you'd try, now that you've run yours for a year?

Regards
S
IMG-20130802-01053.jpg


IMG-20130802-01055.jpg
 

Dr. Schell

The Fuckin' Doc
Jul 12, 2011
1,972
1,228
Brisbane
I have noticed in the pictures that you have included that your tank appears to contain mostly if not all fresh water (the plants indicate that there is a low salt content). Please remember that most mudskipper habitat is saline and these fish appear to be more vigorous under near-seawater salt concentrations. I tend to have a specific gravity of around 1.020.

Will try to answer your questions as best I can......

How long do you have your lights on for? Do you adjust for seasons? In the UK its's summer now but the winter can get pretty dark, cold and miserable. When I was in Oz a few weeks ago (perversely) it got really dark very early, it being your winter, and about 15 degrees.
Lights are on for a 10h photoperiod year round.

You, I think, have only 1 male but I've got 2 males and 1 female. Will this be a problem do you think in a 2 footer (I take it that only the males nest)?
Would work best with 1 male and 2 females. Males are likely to fight vigorously for territory and the right to breed. The intensity of this aggression will vary with species however.

Have you any (man-made) ideas on how to help the nest from caving in? Any silt round our shores is likely to be pretty toxic so I've got some really fine sand mixed with courser stuff to try. I know that roots from plants help keep structure so I'll try that as I believe they need some form of air chamber to lay the eggs (and I believe they oxygenate it with air from their mouths).
You could use a small plastic bottle that has a hole cut into the bottom section and inverted so that any air brought into the nest is trapped in the upper sections of the bottle. The hole in the bottom would ensure that a 'vacuum' is not created with incoming tides. The bottle can be buried in the sand and a hose used to connect the mouth of the bottle to the surface of the sand (will corm the entrance tube. If you but sand in the bottle initially and leave the entrance tube free of sand, the mudskippers are likely to construct the next without the risk of collapse. Place this in a area where they are attempting to form a burrow as this will increase the chance of them utilising the device.

Does the silt need to need to go through these oxygenated and de-oxygenated stages Doc? Presumably each tide brings in relatively oxygenated water? I'm going to try and replicate a tide too and understand your double timer idea. How deep do you think the sand/silt needs to be for them to nest?
The 'deoxygenation of the sand helps to stabilise it. However, if there is high organic content in the sand, the production of sulphurous compounds will form. These have the potential for form sulphuric acid when exposed to oxygen. As such, you will need to monitor the pH carefully during the initial stages. If you use the 'bottle' suggestion, then the bottles will provide the stability that is needed and sediments high in organic partials will not be necessary and will be safer for the fish long term.

Hope that this information helps.
Kind regards, Chris.