Tank Journal Archive
mudskippers are very tough fish and as long as they have a bit of land and enough water to roll around in and moisten their skin, they are fine. Only issue is territorial agression so you need a relatively large speace for relatively few fish.
What I wanted to achaieve with this tank is the breeding of the fish, which is intricatly tied to tidal osscilation. However, this species is liklley to be equally healthy (although would be unable to burrow and reproduce) in a shallow tank with a beach area, with brackish water kept at a temperature of 25 degrees C.
What I wanted to achaieve with this tank is the breeding of the fish, which is intricatly tied to tidal osscilation. However, this species is liklley to be equally healthy (although would be unable to burrow and reproduce) in a shallow tank with a beach area, with brackish water kept at a temperature of 25 degrees C.
there is a large sump that has all the filtration within it. The sump holds the water, a sump pump turns on, and water is pumped into the tank at 2000L/H. Tides pasts for 6 hours, after which time the sump pump turns off and the water drains to the low tide level again. The tides are staggered by 1 hour each day. The system is completely automated so that I don't have to worry about it, except feeing the fish!
Congrats doc youve obviously done a good job if they are happy enough to breed !
Matt you should make the effort to watch the movies and stuff the tide cycle is way cool !
Doc you should do a bit of a detailed write up in DIY section on how you setup the tide cycles !
Matt you should make the effort to watch the movies and stuff the tide cycle is way cool !
Doc you should do a bit of a detailed write up in DIY section on how you setup the tide cycles !
Congratulations on the spawn and for a fantastic tank! When I saw this thread I HAD to sign up!
I’ve been planning my own mudskipper tank myself but I haven’t considered doing it like that with such deep substrate! Have you had any problems caused by dead spots in the substrate?
Here’s a ROUGH draw up of what I’m planning:
The plan is that water from the ocean side, is draw through a canister filter (primary filtration, or just polishing), then the water is returned UNDERNEATH the substrate on the mudflat side. The bottom substrate I was planning to bulk up with scoria stone or bio-balls to get the slope look. On top of this would be a layer of fine filter floss, then finally on top of the floss I was planning to have a layer of mangrove mud.
The main reason for this was to ensure that were no dead spots as the water would flow through the substrate filler and the drainage points into the water area before recirculating.
Sorry for the hijack but I was SO excited by this tank!!!
I’ve been planning my own mudskipper tank myself but I haven’t considered doing it like that with such deep substrate! Have you had any problems caused by dead spots in the substrate?
Here’s a ROUGH draw up of what I’m planning:
The plan is that water from the ocean side, is draw through a canister filter (primary filtration, or just polishing), then the water is returned UNDERNEATH the substrate on the mudflat side. The bottom substrate I was planning to bulk up with scoria stone or bio-balls to get the slope look. On top of this would be a layer of fine filter floss, then finally on top of the floss I was planning to have a layer of mangrove mud.
The main reason for this was to ensure that were no dead spots as the water would flow through the substrate filler and the drainage points into the water area before recirculating.
Sorry for the hijack but I was SO excited by this tank!!!
all of the substrate is a "dead-spot". As Mudskippers are native to mangrove/mudflat environments, the sediments are annoxic within 2cm of the surface. In order to get these fish to breed, I had to replicate this. The substrate that I use is a very glutinous mix of fine sand, silt and mud. The sediments are not disturbed (except by the fish), and eventually and algae layer has formed which has consolidated the surface of the mud/sand mix. To maintain the slope, I have a slatted plastic barrier sitting just under the surface. This prevents movement or collapse of the mud slope. The tank has been drilled in 2 spots on the base, which has allowed me to hide the inflow and outflow tudes, and has also aided in draining the tank to maintain the high/low tide levels (ie the water does not have to siphon-out, it mearly falls with gravity.
all water filtration is undertaken within the sump. Water passes from the tank, into a 200micron filter-sock. Within the sump, there is a small sponge filter that aids in biological filtration and as particles are removed before they reach the sump (via the filter-sock), this sponge filter rarely needs changing. A heater is also contained in the sump and maintains the temp at 26 degrees. During the low tide cycle, there is no flow/filtration in the main tank (although filtration is occuring in the sump where the water is stored). During the tide change, water is pumped from the sump at a rate of 2000L/H and this flow is maintained for 6h (replicated the vast water-movement that occurs over a mudflat). The 6 hours are up, the pump turns off and water drains back into the sump to the low tide level for 6 hours. Tides are staggered by 1h each day to ensure that the cycles change slightly each day (is the reverse of what happens in nature where tides move forward 1 h each day).
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