Mudskipper Tank Or Paludarium - Littlefish

This calls for Snoopy.....

The whole thing has been an emotional rollercoaster already.

Good grief - so it was; quite a rollercoaster reading all about it too but thanks for sharing as it's been great to read all about the developments and almost "see" them unfold.

This calls for Snoopy.....

I had just been thinking that there were a few threads where we could have done with some of your pics; glad to see you've "obliged". 

I have been watching this thread with anticipation, and they are adorable. Funny looking things, but adorable 

I would never have the nerve to dosomething like this 

Well, after all the chaos of having to split the mudskippers up, etc. I was wondering if I could train them to eat out of a bowl to stop their bloodworms from making the sand dirty, and also wondering how long it would be until they settled down enough for me to be able to take some pictures.
The food bowl thing has been successful in the two tanks I've tried it in. I've used the smallest reptile feeding dishes I could find, and plan to get some more.
Last night I moved the female into the 200L tank to join the one male I'd left in there. Both had survived the night, but the male seems unhappy about having another fish in his tank. I got a coffee and sat on the floor in front of the tank to watch. He chased her around the tank, and when they were both on the sand, face to face, he opened his mouth really wide, and she didn't respond. The open mouth thing is the first part of the display of dominance, and another male would have responded with an open mouth. This could then escalate to flashing the fins, and eventually lead to physical contact. I'm hoping that he is starting to realise that she is not a threat to his territory, and eventually accepts her in the tank. I think I might try a bit of rearranging in the tank and see if that helps.
Whilst on the floor I built up a stack of books to rest the laptop on, and hid behind it. Eventually the male got used to the situation, came out of hiding, and I managed to get some pictures. Apologies for the quality though.
To start with the fella swims up to check the bowl for food.
He decides to approach the bowl from the water/log, rather than just jump in form the sand.
He jumps from the log to the bowl.
He spends a bit of time in the bowl eating bloodworms. Nom, nom, nom.
On leaving the bowl it's time for a quick dip to freshen up before returning to the log.

I can see the large tank from where I am sitting, and I admit that I have spent a lot of time watching them today.
They are fascinating, and I'm still getting used to having them. Hopefully they will be fine in their current tanks for the time being. One of the ones in one of the quarantine tanks will be upgraded when the 80cm tanks arrive over the next week or so. Then the other one will either get his own 200L tank in the spare bedroom, or the 125L tank in the hallway if the tiger barbs get moved to the 200L tank.
I don't know how long it takes them to get to their full size, but I'm already thinking about how I'm going to house them when fully grown. 
They are weirdly adorable, and their little faces are so cute. 

So how big will they get???

I'm not well up on mudskipper morphology and I can't be bothered to look it up... sorry!

So how big will they get???

I'm not well up on mudskipper morphology and I can't be bothered to look it up... sorry!

I can only identify one of the four mudskippers confidently at the moment, and that's the one with the bright blue flash on his fin, which would be P. barbarus which can get to anywhere between 15 - 25cm. The larger sizes are only really found in the wild, so keeping my fingers crossed for mine staying at the slightly smaller end of the range.
I have no idea what species the other two males are, and they have both blue and brown/red flashes on their fins, and I can't find any firm identification for them. Perhaps it will become more obvious as they grow up, but they do also have the same body markings as the p. barbarus, so perhaps they are the same but a little younger (although they are the same size). As for the female, she doesn't have big, flashy fins, so completely lost as to how to identify her. There is a strong possibility that they are all the same species, but I really don;t know. I guess that's one of the problems with taking on and incorrect delivery from MA, they don;t have any information on exactly what the fish are.

I like the webbing.  Spider fish, spider fish, does whatever a spider fish wish?  Who needs a living room!  More tanks!

Well, my 4 mudskippers are still with me, and recent circumstances documented in https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/general-fishkeeping-chat/think-fish-keepers-daily-news/msg45196/?topicseen#new show that I have finally found out that my gang are P. septemradiatus.

They will be getting a new set up, all of which will be documented in https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/gallery-showcase/multi-tank-syndrome-confessions-of-an-mts-sufferer-by-littlefish/ so I can keep all my fish work in one place.