A smaller, stockier mudskipper of about 12 cm (5 in), plain brown with faint pale flecks and none of the silvery streaking that names its relative. It works mangrove roots and rocky tidal shores, and climbs - a mudskipper found half a metre above the waterline on a root is normally this species.
Mudskippers hold territory on the flats and settle disputes by display: dorsal fins go up, the animals face off, and the loser retreats without contact. They feed on small crabs, insects and worms taken from the surface of the mud, snapping them up with a mouthful of water that acts as a tongue, since a fish out of water cannot swallow dry. Tidal shorelines with mangrove are the place to look, at low water, from land. Both mudskippers here sit at the edge of what a marine catalogue covers, which is exactly what makes them worth including.
- smaller and stockier than the silverlined mudskipper
- brown with faint pale flecks, no clear silver lines
- climbs onto mangrove roots and rock above the waterline
- length up to 12 cm
