Atlantic Mudskipper (Periophthalmus barbarus) Breeding Guide

Mudskippers spawn in air-filled burrow chambers where the male guards the eggs; home breeding is rare due to the burrow biology.

Overview

Periophthalmus barbarus, the Atlantic mudskipper, is an amphibious goby of West African estuaries and mudflats, recorded from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Ghana. It breathes air, spends much of the day on land and shelters in burrows up to 1.5 m deep that contain air pockets. It requires a brackish paludarium with a land area and is only rarely bred at home, but its burrow-spawning biology is well described.

Sexing

Reported sizes at maturity are about 10.2 cm for females and 10.8 cm for males. Reliable visual sexing is otherwise limited; males are the burrow-tending sex.

Conditioning

The wild diet includes worms, crickets, flies, mealworms, beetles, small fish and small crustaceans, and peak spawning is linked to food availability. A varied carnivorous diet conditions adults; spawning occurs from roughly February–May in males and March–May in females.

Breeding Setup

Reproduction depends on burrows. A brackish paludarium with a deep, workable substrate and an emersed land area is required so a male can excavate and maintain a burrow with an air-filled chamber. The need to recreate a deep burrow with controlled air pockets is the central reason home breeding is uncommon.

Spawning Behavior & Trigger

The female deposits thousands of eggs on the walls of the burrow, and the male guards and tends them inside the chamber. The eggs develop in the air-filled section of the burrow; mudskippers then flood the burrow to trigger the eggs to hatch.

Egg & Fry Care

After hatching, larvae drift for roughly 30–50 days before settling, a planktonic dispersal phase that is difficult to support in captivity. The male provides extensive paternal care within the burrow up to and including the flooding that triggers hatching.