The following story was printed in the Phuket Gazette "Nature Notes" section: Stories and photos by Dave Williams

If you’ve ever walked down a pier at low tide or paddled a canoe/kayak at low tide you likely saw one of the strangest creatures that the mudflats offers – the mudskipper. They’re all over the place around Phuket.

Globally, seventeen species are currently recorded. At least ten species of mudskippers have been recorded in southern Thailand. Mudskippers are actually related the gobies, one of the beautiful coral reef fish species.

They live mostly within the area between the high tide mark and the low tide mark. They can be seen swimming with their heads partially out of the water at times, but they’re most often observed when the water subsides. You can see dozens of them at a time walking around on the mud. Some of the easiest places to see them are the Bangrong Pier and the Ao Por pier.
These fish are truly unique. They have the ability to breathe through their moistened skin and through the mucus lining of the mouth and throat. None of this happens however unless the mudskipper is wet. This of course limits mudskippers to wet habitats.

Mudskippers, when not visible on the mudflats, are often underground. They have burrows in the mud. They maintain an air pocket inside of their abode for breathing purposes as the mud in mangrove mudflats is extremely low in oxygen (anaerobic). Plus, when the water is covering the mudflats, the mudskippers often hide from bigger predators. And, in cases where the predator goes into the burrow, the burrows have escape routes. The main predators of mudskippers are mangrove snakes (such as the Dog-faced Water Snake – fairly common in Phang Nga Bay), the Mangrove Snake and the Crab-eating Water Snake. Predatory fish also prey on mudskippers.

Are you wondering what they eat? Some species of Mudskippers eat diatoms, while others seem to prefer crustaceans (crabs), insects and certain small invertebrates. Diatoms are microscopic phytoplankton organisms categorized as unicellular algae. These tasty morsels are found on the sediment in the tidal zone. The tide provides an abundance of these little organisms.

Mixed species of mudskippers often share the same turf. Perhaps this is due to an abundance of food. Perhaps it’s somethings it’s simply a case of ‘big fish – little fish’. You most likely won’t ever see mixed species fighting, but you can watch same species displaying aggressive behavior.

The mock fighting is actually quite funny. What normally happens is the two mudskippers square-off facing each other. They display their dorsal fins and open their mouths as wide as possible. They get close to each other and that’s usually as far as it goes. I’ve not witnessed mudskippers going past this stage.

If you go kayaking around mangroves, take a look on the prop roots of the Rhizophora family. You’ll likely see some mudskippers on the roots. Take the time to watch one of these guys for while. You can see them almost everywhere in Phuket, that is, anywhere with mud.