Mudskipper thread? Mudskipper thread...

ost mudskippers(this is my baby in particular)!  These are my passion and what I'd like to make a thesis on to make way into Marine Biology!  Everything about them peaks my interest like I'm 5 again and I feel like these(this*) little fish support me in my life and on my way through college.  I'd like to see a way to create this guy in the game, and I'd make an entire planet full of them like I did in in "that other game", but I love my mudskipper very much.

So I'd like to dedicate an entire thread to the most awesome fish in the world.


So, without further ado, here's some interesting mudskipper facts.

1. Mudskippers can blink!  They have dermal cups underneath their eyes which allows them to moisten up their eyes!  This totally unique in fish and is something most reptiles are unable of!
2. On the subject of eyes, mudskippers are also unique in their placement of eyes.  They're able of almost 360 degree sight without the need of a neck since their eyes are on top above their skull.
3. Mudskippers are not lobe-finned fish like coelacanths or lungfish.  Mudskippers are gobies which are a fairly advanced modern group of fish consisting of over 2,000 species.  However, the more terrestrial mudskippers have evolved a joint that juts out of the pectoral fin that acts like an elbow.
4. Mudskippers make sound and communicate with several complex methods.  Most "skippers" have colorful dorsal fins that act as flags to communicate.  But not only that, they make sounds that we're not able to hear, just like whales and dolphins.  Nobody knows how mudskippers are able to produce sound.
5. Mudskippers have complex breathing methods.  They can drown and need air, but they can breath the water.  Although common in many air-breathing fish, most use a swim bladder as a primitive lung.  Not the mudskipper!  The mudskipper has pouches in it's gills that act as SCUBA tanks it fills with air.  Not only that, but like amphibians, skippers use their skin to breath.
6. There're 41 species of mudskippers.  All found in the Old World(Africa, Asia, and Australia), and each species shows how they evolve from aquatic, eel-like gobies to the an advanced terrestrial animal.
7. Mudskippers live in the most toxic environments.  No, Seriously!  They live in tidal mudflats and mangrove forests that have a slow nitrogen cycle which means that the habitat are naturally full of toxic chemicals like ammonia and the water is oxygen depleted(which is why skippers like breathing air better).  So the mudskippers have adapted to these conditions and became almost ammonia tolerant, which can normally kill most fish in microscopic levels.
8. Mudskippers can climb as good as they can swim and walk!  Mudskipper's are gobies since they usually have suction-cup shaped pelvic fins.  Common in most gobies, this adaptation has been used in aquatic environments to use in extreme shallow water environments like to stick on rocks in the current and to even scale waterfalls, but mudskippers are using their fins to climb up mangrove roots to escape predators.
9. Once a mystery, scientist recently found the breeding behavior of mudskippers.  Skippers will build "J" shaped burrow to lay their eggs in.  The Tip of the burrow is an air pocket for the eggs since air has better respiration than water.  But the parents supply the air into the burrow by gulping it from the outside and spitting it to the inside.
10. Once the eggs hatch, they have to undergo life as plankton for a few weeks until they grow into their adult form.
11. Different mudskippers have different diets.  Some eat plankton while others prefer meaty foods.  But they've found that the tide is the "giving tree" and they'll eat everything that washes up from the shore.
12. There is only one species of mudskipper found on the Atlantic Ocean and is known as the Atlantic Mudskipper(what a coincidence).  This is the kind I have.

Thanks for all who enjoy this and don't be afraid to post mudskippers!  They love you all equally!  And happy Memorial Day everybody!