Tank Journal Archive

[Dr. Schell]

Hi guys and gals, just an update. This morning (during the low tide phase) I noticed the male being very active at the mouth of his burrow (going in and out). In addition, the female appears to be half her original girth. I suspect that the pair have spawned.
The male has remained in his burrow during the subsequent high tide phase, and this behavior is consistent with brooding males in the wild.
Will keep you posted on upcoming events

 

[Synodontis]

Morning Doc,

That's less then a month since you introduced them. The environment you have created must be spot on for them to feel right at home. Well done! :D

 

[Dr. Schell]

Yes, I have always suspected that it is the tidal movement and flooding/drying that is the cue for reproductive outputs. I noticed the male transporting air (in his mouth) into the burrow (the eggs are depositied in an "air phase" in the burrow that the male maintians). Confirmation of breeding will however, be the presence of larvae in the water. I will keep an eye out for these and if detected, will photograph and document them. Once I have the pair "breeding consistently", I will start to manipulate the environment so that I can observe within thier burrow.

Hopefully there will be more to come!

If I can obtain larvae, I will experiment on raising the young. Would be fantastic to be able to distribute baptive bred and raised mudskippers!

 

[Dynamic]

More vids please dude.

 

[Josh M]

Captive bred ANYTHING is a plus in this hobby ! The less we can take from nature the better I think...... Oh and we'll done doc told you your efforts were worth it :)

 

[Dr. Schell]

I am trying not to "count my chickens before they hatch" so to speak. As I cannot see into the burrow, I will not consider that they have bred until I see hatched larvae. However, the male's behaviour does seem promicing

 

[Dr. Schell]

Got a few snaps of the male displaying to the female. The male is no longer spending time in the burrow, so I assume that eggs were not produced, or if they were, they were not viable. The male is once again displaying by erecting his fins and wriggling in front of the female. The female does not move away or errect her fins, so I assume that this is a positive sign.

 

[VaultBoy]

Its a shame the first clutch of eggs were no good/ nonexistant Hopefully they get back on the job!

 

[Dr. Schell]

yes, I hope so, I am a patient person. More interesting in documenting their behabiour as opposed to raising the young.

 

[Dr. Schell]

Update on the mudskippers. The male has built another "large" burrow well above the low tide mark (as they would in nature). Female is not interested but I hold out hope. Notice the rim he has constructed around the hole (I assume that this is to reduce sediment flow into the hole as the tide recedes. Photos below:

 

[Josh M]

Keep em comin doc this is good because it's so different from the norm

 

[Dr. Schell]

Here are a few more pic of the burrow during the high tide phase and during the low tide (just after the tide has receeded). Note the dark mud in the "turret" of the burrow which the mudskipper has removed from the burrow.

 

[Josh M]

That would be so awesome to sit there and watch if you get a chance you should make a time lapse video of one full tide cycle that would be cool

 

[Dr. Schell]

If I had the equiptment to do so, I would

 

[Josh M]

If you have an iPhone you can set
It up on a charger with the cam on the tank and download a time lapse app....

 

[Dr. Schell]

I have downloaded the app. Will play around with the timing and will upload a time lapse video of the skippers digging etc.

 

[Dr. Schell]

Here is a time-lapse video (1 frame/second) of the male mudskipper going about his business. I included a short tidal surge so that you can see the way he goes about removing the sediment that flows into his burrow.

 

[Dr. Schell]

 

[Josh M]

Nice ! Thank you for appeasing me ;)

 

[MagicJ]

Ummmmm, what are the things crawling over the wood?