# Atlantic mudskipper won't eat - please help!



## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum but have kept fish for years. I also have a couple of axolotls so am not a complete beginner but am finding my new friend a little challenging!

I have an Atlantic mudskipper (Periophthalmus barbarus) who I bought last Friday. He is in a 3ft tank which is filled to about 3 or 4 inches with brackish water and he has lots of different platforms to climb out on (mostly river rocks). He has a waterfall, which is just the filter pointed at some rocks, and his temp is kept at around 28 degrees. The tank is fairly humid and so he should be comfortable but he has barely eaten since I got him. Over the last few days he has been spending more time out of the water and seems fairly active and curious but is still quite nervous and will jump back in the water if he sees a sudden movement. He ate a small amount of tropical flake and a couple of bloodworms last Monday which I put in the water because he wouldn't come out. Since then I have been putting food on the land parts and have tried frozen bloodworms, frozen chopped cockles, frozen brine shrimp, prawns, raw fish and bits of flake and he hasn't eaten any of it. I put some live daphnia in the water a couple of days ago but haven't a clue if he ate any but even if he did it wasn't a huge amount. Anyway, I went back to the shop where I bought him from this Friday and it turns out he has been keeping his mudskippers in unheated tanks with fresh water about 4 inches deep and they have only a piece of polystyrene floating in the water for them to sit on and the box filter. The guy said he just puts a frozen cube of bloodworms on the polystyrene and they come and get it. 

Sorry for the long post but I'm really worried that my mudskipper is going to die of starvation soon. He's eaten virtually nothing for over a week, has anyone got any ideas?


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## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

Maybe try putting anything you give him in the water instead of the dry land? We have two African mudskippers and they enjoy eating feeder guppies, flake, live brine shrimp, and live crickets. They are attracted to movement in the water from what I can tell, more so than food just laying on the land part of their tank.


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## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

hXcChic22 said:


> Maybe try putting anything you give him in the water instead of the dry land? We have two African mudskippers and they enjoy eating feeder guppies, flake, live brine shrimp, and live crickets. They are attracted to movement in the water from what I can tell, more so than food just laying on the land part of their tank.


Thanks for the reply but I have been trying that as well and it seems to make no difference whatsoever  I haven't tried anything live as yet as I can't get hold of live blood/blackworms and as the pet shop guy was feeding frozen I think he would be used to non-moving food... Any more suggestions? Anybody??


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## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

Ok, now this mudskipper has gone a week without food, I'm guessing he'll die of starvation soon, can't anybody help???


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## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

Can you not get live crickets anywhere? They're worth a try.


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## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

hXcChic22 said:


> Can you not get live crickets anywhere? They're worth a try.


Yeah, I'll get some tomorrow, everywhere will be shut now. To be honest I'm reluctant to feed him crickets for a few reasons;

1. It's not something a mudskipper would eat in the wild
2. He was in the pet shop for 2 months according to the guy who owns it and he was perfectly happy taking frozen bloodworms and
3. I have no idea of how to store crickets or how to even get one out of the box without unleashing a whole load of them into my house 

However it's worth a try because I'm out of ideas and even though he seems perfectly happy (he sits on top of the filter watching what's going on through the glass, has an occasional dip and a wander over to the other side of the tank to sit on the sand and watch the fish in the tank next to his at night) and doesn't even seem particularly thin I doubt he can last much longer without food  I'll get some crickets in the morning and update if he eats any, fingers crossed!


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

Chances are he can live longer without food than you would think. If the shop was keeping him in cooler water then I would try dropping the water temp. I would also get a piece of polystyrene like he is used to and drop that in there. Then I would gradually change him up to the appropriate temperature and eventually you can probably take the polystyrene back out. My guess is that it was too much of a change too quick and he's upset about it.

http://www.ultimate-exotics.com/amphibians/amphibious-fish/mudskipper-periophthalmus-barbarus.php


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## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

It may not feed on crickets in the wild, per se, but unless you can provide him small crabs and such, he won't be eating his natural prey. We fishkeepers try to provide the best substitutes we can and hope for the best. 

If it turns out he likes them, get a small tank (like 2.5 gallon) with a screen lid and keep them in there with some egg carton, cricket quencher with gut load (gel water) and some marketed cricket food or instant oatmeal. 

Supplement feeding them to the skipper with flake wafers or granules.


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## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

Obsidian said:


> Chances are he can live longer without food than you would think. If the shop was keeping him in cooler water then I would try dropping the water temp. I would also get a piece of polystyrene like he is used to and drop that in there. Then I would gradually change him up to the appropriate temperature and eventually you can probably take the polystyrene back out. My guess is that it was too much of a change too quick and he's upset about it.
> 
> http://www.ultimate-exotics.com/amphibians/amphibious-fish/mudskipper-periophthalmus-barbarus.php


Already tried the polystyrene thing, he has had a piece in there since I got him and he hasn't shown the slightest bit of interest in it, whether it's got food on it or not! Interestingly I've been sat here watching him for the last couple of hours and he has been sifting through the sand, although I doubt he would find anything in there, it's just washed playsand. He seems quite happy though, maybe he's finding little things to eat that I don't even know about! I think you're right about him being shocked by the sudden change in water and temperature but is it really a good idea to change it again now? He's been in there for a week and a half and is a lot more active and less timid than he was at first. Sorry, it must seem like I'm just refusing your advice but I really don't want to stress him out any more than he's already been, poor thing 

Still not convinced about the crickets, I have read a few things about them being hard for mudskippers to digest and I would rather feed him something more 'fishy'/water-based in line with his natural diet iyswim but I will definitely try them for the short-term. Just getting him to eat anything at the moment would be great!!


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## Homer (Sep 6, 2010)

my mudskipper has lived on basically crickets for the past year and he goes nuts for them. occasionally i give him meal worms. they may not eat crickets in the wild but they also dont eat flakes


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Any chance you can get live blackworms? They will burrow in the sand and he will have to work to dig them out. All my fish go nuts for them. We can get them from California though stores or clubs, but I don't know if you can get them in the UK.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

I shouldn't have put it as "drop the temperature back down" when what I was thinking was to lower it some and see if it gets him to eat, and if so then bring it back up slowly. I am not suggesting you take him to all the way no heater kind of temperatures. Basically I am saying to mess with the temp a little bit to see if it makes a difference. You don't want to go haywire with it, just make small changes downward and see if he gets more interested in food. If not then that's not it LOL.


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## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

Homer said:


> my mudskipper has lived on basically crickets for the past year and he goes nuts for them. occasionally i give him meal worms. they may not eat crickets in the wild but they also dont eat flakes


Yeah I know they don't eat flake but as I said, it would be great for him to just eat anything right now! I wouldn't feed him flake in the long-term either.

Can't get hold of live blackworm or bloodworms in any of my lfs's, although there are some sellers on eBay who do have them so think I'm gonna order some later, the axolotls will eat them if all else fails. I feed my axolotls earthworms so have tried those too but he seems scared of them?? When the worm gets near him he swims off round to the other side of the tank! I took them out eventually as I was thinking they would bury themselves in the sand and end up dying in there and rotting underneath - there are river rocks under there to hold everything up so Malc (the mudskipper!) wouldn't be able to get right down there to get them out...

Dropped the temp down to 26 but no change really. Did some water tests this morning and have done a partial water change as ammonia was up to 1.0 ppm :O I'm really reluctant to keep putting my hands in there fiddling about all the time in case I scare him too much! Anyway, gonna brave the rain and wind and go get some crickets...


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## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

Got the crickets and put 3 in there with Malc. He was interested more or less straight away and did a bit of mudskipper stalking, caught them in his mouth but spat them back out again  Hoping he'll have another try later but for now he's moved over to the other side of the tank and is sat on top of the filter


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## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

One of the crickets is 'missing' but I found one of its legs... Fingers crossed it was dinner but could just be hiding somewhere...


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## Homer (Sep 6, 2010)

i cant get mine to eat anything that isnt alive but i dont mind. i do mind him always watching me lol. ill be laying in bed and ill look over at the tank sometimes and he'll just be staring at me. i think i need to get some drift wood to give hime more room to explore


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## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

Homer said:


> i cant get mine to eat anything that isnt alive but i dont mind. i do mind him always watching me lol. ill be laying in bed and ill look over at the tank sometimes and he'll just be staring at me. i think i need to get some drift wood to give hime more room to explore


Mine does the same! Just stares out of the tank at me, think he's just keeping his eye on me in case I start messing with his tank again!

Found a dead cricket in the water this morning which looked like it had been crushed so think Malc has had hold of it but not eaten it, it was still 'whole'! Anyway I've put a couple more in this morning and will see how they do. I don't mind if he only eats live things, as long as he eats something!!


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## Homer (Sep 6, 2010)

girlybags said:


> Mine does the same! Just stares out of the tank at me, think he's just keeping his eye on me in case I start messing with his tank again!
> 
> Found a dead cricket in the water this morning which looked like it had been crushed so think Malc has had hold of it but not eaten it, it was still 'whole'! Anyway I've put a couple more in this morning and will see how they do. I don't mind if he only eats live things, as long as he eats something!!


i find legs all over. he usually crushes the crickets and sucks out the goo.


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## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

Well this morning there's one cricket missing so I'm hoping he's eaten it. The rest are dead, think they drowned rather than being killed by Malc. Anyway I'm glad that he seems to be eating something but it still doesn't seem like much and I'd feel a whole lot better if I could know for sure that he'd eaten them


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## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

Success!! At last I've seen him eat something  

When I was on my earthworm hunt earlier I found 3 tiny ones (about an inch long) and thought I might as well chuck them in and see what happens. The ones I usually find are pretty huge so perfect for the axies but when I tried Malc with them he just kind of freaked out and ran off! Anyway I went about my usual business and when I looked in the tank 5 mins later there was one worm left and it was hanging out of Malc's mouth, yay!!! I found a few more small ones but will save them for tomorrow, I don't want to overfeed him especially as he hasn't eaten for nearly 2 weeks (although it's really tempting to just chuck a couple more in there for him...) I'm so relieved that he's actually eaten and I saw it otherwise I might have thought the worms had just buried themselves in the sand! Got some blackworms coming next week so he should love them


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## girlybags (Aug 31, 2011)

I just wanted to do a quick update, mainly for anyone else having the same problem as Google doesn't bring up much at all about mudskippers and as they're not a common pet there are very few forum posts brought up in a search. Any that do come up are rarely updated once the mudskipper is eating so not very helpful in the long run.

Malc was eating earthworms and as I couldn't find many smaller ones he was doing ok on larger sized ones. Anyway as worms are becoming a bit scarce in the colder weather I decided to give frozen bloodworm another go with great success! He had been on the live earthworms for about 2 weeks and I wasn't expecting him to take anything frozen as he had completely ignored any frozen foods I had put in previously, even to the extent where he would walk through a pile of bloodworm/chopped cockles etc and pay it no attention whatsoever! About 4 days ago I put in a defrosted cube of bloodworm and after I had moved away from the tank he went right up to it and ate the lot in less than 5 minutes. He is eating them with less voracity now but I think a cube a day is too much so am going to start feeding every other day and in a couple of weeks will try some different frozen foods just for variety. I'll try and remember to update when I do! He is doing really well anyway and seems happy in his new home 

Thanks again to those who replied to my initial posts


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