A Shade of Grey
Photo credit as tagged.
Mudskippers are an amazing fish that have adapted to live between the tides. It has evolved the ability to come out of the water, ‘walk’ or 'skip’ on the exposed muddy banks. They use their pectoral fins to pull itself out off water unto the soft exposed mud, to ‘walk’ about in search for food. It stores water in it gills and needs to return to the waters to replenish this supply once it is used up. Hence therefore this fish will not travel too far from the waters edge.
Whenever you get to visit our mangrove forest be sure to stop and study these odd looking creatures. The courtship process is so interesting and I am sure you will never look at fish the same way again. allow me to describe it in the following pictures:
A solitary male makes several great leaps completely out of the shallow water. In the hope that he can draw the attention of a nearby female and potential mate.
A fertile and interested female comes closer to investigate. He makes several half jumps in rapid succession.
He comes closer to her and moves all around her wagging his tail like a little puppy dog and gently caresses his chin with his tail as in this picture.
She seems to approve and they swim alongside each other like in synchronize swimming and stop at a raised mud mound with their mouths wide open as if they were opera singers. Finally, he leads her into his burrow underwater where they will mate and deposits her eggs.