My friend gave me a mudskipper. I have been researching how to care for them since I didn't know anything about them. Well she has this poor fish all messed up. To start there is no sand in the tank, not even much rocks, so help me know what to do to get this poor guy on the right track to survival. I know that I need to get him more land and more sand to make a burrow and I need to check the water salinity. Other than that I don't know what to do. What kind of sand should I get and what kind of salt? Please give me anything to go on here guys!! Thanks
Save This MudSkipper
- Thread starter sandhamwich
- Start date
I love you username! Welcome to AC.
The kind of salt you should use is marine salt mix like Instant Ocean. Plain salt (NaCl) or "Freshwater Aquarium Salt" simply do not contain all the minerals and other elements necessary to make it a truly brackish setup.
For sand, lots of folks use playground sand, because you can get 50 pounds of it for a few dollars. But I've heard tales of it increasing pH. I think what most people do is test it by putting in a bucket of water for a couple days and testing pH before and after.
The kind of salt you should use is marine salt mix like Instant Ocean. Plain salt (NaCl) or "Freshwater Aquarium Salt" simply do not contain all the minerals and other elements necessary to make it a truly brackish setup.
For sand, lots of folks use playground sand, because you can get 50 pounds of it for a few dollars. But I've heard tales of it increasing pH. I think what most people do is test it by putting in a bucket of water for a couple days and testing pH before and after.
Land is a must for skippers, but I have never read anything about them building burrows in the sand. I have mine on crushed coral/aragonite substrate with a rfug filter, and he seems to be pretty happy. Plah is right about using marine mix salt to make brackish water. I use Instant Ocean, at a specific gravity of about 1.008-1.010 depending on how much water has evaporated from the tank.
Playground sand does increase PH, thats the problem I'm having with all of my tanks. I plan on changing them over to black gravel.
Anyway, what size tank is it in? Use Instant Ocean for salt and be sure to pick up a hydrometer to measure the salt content. I've never heard of them burrowing either, just be sure they have land and a swimming area.
Anyway, what size tank is it in? Use Instant Ocean for salt and be sure to pick up a hydrometer to measure the salt content. I've never heard of them burrowing either, just be sure they have land and a swimming area.
Giving them a land portion is the most important part, and as for the sand, I used play sand for brackish, SW, and Tanganyikan cichlid tanks, and the only comlpaints were that it looks worse than aragonite/coral mixes that you find at LFS.
Filtration sand
If you go the route of adding sand use a loose non-compacting sand, like filtration sand. Most play sands are compacting, and are used also for paving. This stuff gets full of nasty things over time, and unless cleaned regularly can cause problems. This type of sand can also be bought at the same places, most of the time.
If you go the route of adding sand use a loose non-compacting sand, like filtration sand. Most play sands are compacting, and are used also for paving. This stuff gets full of nasty things over time, and unless cleaned regularly can cause problems. This type of sand can also be bought at the same places, most of the time.
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