--- title: "Atlantic Mudskipper (Periophthalmus barbarus) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "A West African fish that blinks on land and hunts crabs and insects on the mud." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/atlantic-mudskipper-1.webp" published: "2026-10-10" updated: "2026-10-10" --- # Atlantic Mudskipper (*Periophthalmus barbarus*) > **Status**: Checked against 6 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: A West African fish that blinks on land and hunts crabs and insects on the mud. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: 80s Pop & Dance Anthem // Katrina & The Waves, "Walking on Sunshine" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/05wIrZSwuaVWhcv5FfqeH0) > **Vibe Match**: The Atlantic mudskipper skips or walks across sand and mud in search of food, a fish out for a stroll. Walking on Sunshine is a brass-driven strut with the same bounce in its step. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Periophthalmus barbarus* - **Danger Level**: Low - **Conservation Status**: Least Concern ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2020-2.rlts.t182285a21913503.en)) - **Superpower**: Blinks on land, in about 560 ms, about the length of a human blink - **Habitat**: Muddy ground and brackish estuaries, lagoons and mangrove swamps along the West African coast - **Diet**: Chiefly arthropods such as crabs and insects from the mud surface - **Tags**: fish, wetlands, carnivore, bizarre-anatomy ## Natural History & Behavior ## A fish that blinks Most tetrapods, the four-limbed vertebrates, blink. Mudskippers are fish that evolved blinking separately, and the Atlantic mudskipper does it on land. To blink, it pulls its eye down into a space below the eye socket while a membrane called the dermal cup rises. When researchers raised the evaporation rate in its tank about 30 times, the fish blinked more often, which fits the idea that a blink keeps the eye wet. A single blink can also fully clean the cornea, the clear front of the eye, of particles. Mudskippers have not evolved new muscles or glands for blinking. > **Blink timing** > Twelve spontaneous blinks from four mudskippers lasted 480 to 700 ms, averaging 560 ms, about the same as a human's 572 ms. ## Walking to dinner The mudskipper is an amphibious air-breather that skips or walks across sand and mud in search of food. Its pectoral fins have a long muscular lobe, and its eyes bulge out close together. Adults feed chiefly on arthropods from the mud surface, such as crabs and insects, and the fish feeds mostly on land. Aquatic vertebrates generally feed by sucking water into the mouth. On land the mudskipper uses what researchers call a hydrodynamic tongue: water in its mouth flows forward as the mouth opens and helps it feed. On land it raises and then drops the floor of its mouth, a movement kept from the way it uses water in its mouth underwater. Just before it feeds in water its gill slits open; on land they stay closed. It can also hold a little water and air in its mouth while out of the water, with the gill lid shut. ## Size and range FishBase gives a maximum length of 14.7 cm standard length, measured from the snout to the end of the backbone, and a length at first maturity of about 9.6 cm. Over a year of trapping in Nigeria's New Calabar River, 1,572 fish of 4.1 to 14.2 cm total length weighed 0.70 to 39.62 g. Its range is the West African coast from Senegal to Angola. It lives on muddy ground in brackish estuaries, lagoons and mangrove swamps, and it spawns in burrows. The IUCN Red List rates it Least Concern, assessed in 2019. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How big does an Atlantic mudskipper get? FishBase lists a maximum of 14.7 cm standard length. Reports of fish up to 250 mm long are probably other species, it says. *(Source: [FishBase]())* ### Can a fish really blink? The Atlantic mudskipper does. Researchers filming adults found that it blinks regularly on land and blinked more often when the air was drying out its eyes. *(Source: [Aiello et al. 2023]())* ### Where do Atlantic mudskippers live? Along West Africa's Atlantic shore, between Senegal and Angola. It turns up in freshwater now and then, but always close to the shore. *(Source: [FishBase]())* ### How heavy is an Atlantic mudskipper? About 11 g on average, in a year-long sample of 1,572 wild fish trapped in a Nigerian river. The heaviest of them weighed under 40 g. *(Source: [Chukwu & Deekae 2011]())* ## Sources 1. [Diouf et al. (2020). Periophthalmus barbarus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T182285A21913503.]() 2. [Aiello et al. (2023). The origin of blinking in both mudskippers and tetrapods is linked to life on land. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.]() 3. [Michel, Aerts & Van Wassenbergh (2016). Environment-dependent prey capture in the Atlantic mudskipper (Periophthalmus barbarus). Biology Open.]() 4. [Kuciel (2012). The mechanism of olfactory organ ventilation in Periophthalmus barbarus (Gobiidae, Oxudercinae). Zoomorphology.]() 5. [Chukwu & Deekae (2011). Length-weight relationship, condition factor and size composition of Periophthalmus barbarus (Linneaus 1766 ) in New Calabar River, Nigeria. Agriculture and Biology Journal of North America.]() 6. [Periophthalmus barbarus (Linnaeus, 1766), Atlantic mudskipper. FishBase.]() *Published October 10, 2026. 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