Mudskippers are notoriously difficult to maintain in captivity because of the demands they place on the aquarist. Species imported include Periophthalmus barbarus, Periophthalmus catonensis, and Periophthalmus kaelreukeri, but these names are often confused-and identification is uncertain.
Retail outlets tend to stock only a few brackish water fishes because people usually want either marines because of their flamboyant colours or freshwater as they are easiest. The main brackish water fishes available are Scats, Monos, Archers, Arius catfishes, Mudskippers, Anableps, and Brachygobius, plus, if you want to see them at their best, Sailfin mollies (Poecilia sp.). This last group has been dealt with in the Cyprinodonts chapter.
Glofish 70 gobies 260–261 breeding 230, 231 suckerlike device 261 goldfish 74, 332–343 breeding 326, 327, 328, 341 designing ponds for 300 diseases 324 feeding 316, 337 hand-stripping 326 indoor tanks 312, 313 origins and ancestry 22, 334 pigmentation and sheen 333 scales 16
A brackish-water tank lets you keep a number of interesting, but often overlooked, species that are native to estuarine waters. The home aquarium can be a mixed community setup, or a recreation of a specialized habitat such as a swamp.
Fish have colonized almost every aquatic environment on the planet. Blackfin Icefish inhabit the freezing depths of the Antarctic Ocean, while Desert Pupfish thrive at over 104°F (40°C) in pools in the Nevada Desert. The huge diversity of fish habitats worldwide has driven the evolution of the countless shapes, sizes, and colors that make fish so fascinating to keep.
The conditions encountered by fish living in estuaries and mangroves, where fresh water and saltwater meet, can be recreated in a brackish water aquarium. The equipment required is much the same as for freshwater aquariums, but the substrate is usually sandy, so power filters are more appropriate than undergravel systems.
[Ebook] The New Guide to Aquarium Fish A comprehensive and authoritative guide to tropical freshwater, brackish, and marine fishes Mary Bailey – Gina Sandford
