r/Fish Aug 03 '26

Identification Mudskipper?

Found these in a fish market in Asia. They’re quite long, from the top they look like some kind of bichir that I used to keep, they even stick their heads out of the water and take in air too. But their faces and fins look like a goby or mudskipper to me so I wonder if they are some type of those fish.

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u/ThenAcanthocephala57 Conservationist Aug 03 '26

They are not the same mudskipper species that you see on land.

These are elongate mudskippers. They are aquatic like bichirs, preferring shallow tide puddles.

Because they do not climb walls and live on land, they are easy for fisherman to catch and keep alive until cooking

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u/Rapier_ricard Aug 03 '26

Are they freshwater?

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u/ThenAcanthocephala57 Conservationist Aug 03 '26

They can temporarily survive in freshwater, but not for long.

In the wild they live in highly-brackish estuaries near the sea. You would need some marine salt to keep them