ATLANTIC MUDSKIPPERS

      Atlantic mudskippers are well-named.  They are ten inch, semi-aquatic fish that live on Atlantic Ocean coast mudflats, including those flats with mangrove tree forests growing on them, in a hot, humid climate along the western shore of Africa.  They are diurnal, amphibious fish that live three-quarters of their lives on mud flats and the rest in brackish or salt water down the burrows they dig into coastal flats, a niche they are well adapted to.  

     All species of mudskippers need to be always moist to be able to absorb oxygen through their skins, mouths and gill chambers, much like amphibians, frogs and salamanders, do.  Mudskippers even store water in their gill chambers to retain moisture to breathe when foraging for tiny fish and crustaceans, and worms and other invertebrates, or mates, on the flats and in shallows.  Scales and mucus also help them retain moisture.  

     Atlantic mudskippers are like frogs with swimming tails.  They have large, bulging eyes on top of big heads, which allow them to see above water, while submerged and hidden in it, to ambush their prey, and escape predators.  They are brown, with vertical dark bars and tiny, blue dots on their bodies and dorsal fins, which allows them to blend into the brown of the mud flats.  These mudskippers have large mouths like frogs, to suck in prey.  And teeth to hold their prey until they swallow it.  And, like frogs, mudskippers use their two each leg-like pectoral fins and pelvic fins to walk and leap across mud flats.

     Atlantic mudskippers dig burrows in mud flats, and each little fish builds a wall of mud around its territory and food resources.  Each one stays cool, moist and safe in its watery home.  And they scoot down their burrows when the tide comes in to avoid sharks and other predators, but emerge from them when the tide is out to forage for food on the flats.  

     Atlantic mudskippers fight over territory and burrows by pressing their large mouths together and pushing against each other to determine who is stronger.  While fighting, they raise their large, blue-spotted dorsal fins, perhaps to make themselves appear larger and more intimidating.

     Pairs of Atlantic mudskippers mate down the inside of males' homes.  Each female spawns thousands of tiny eggs in that burrow, which hatch in water.  When old enough the young swim out of their watery nursery and away with the tide to settle on other mud flats.

     Mudskippers are intriguing, little fish with unique habits in an extreme niche.  It seems every niche on Earth is filled by at least one species of living beings.  All the niches together produce a great multitude of interesting species, worldwide.  

                  

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