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.