there's not any that I can think of that fit all four criteria (small size, docile, visual, good eater)
There are many choices though, and here's a few that I have experience with.

I think the corn snakes come the closest as they can be kept in a 20 gal, are extremely friendly, can be active during the day (more then most others, but still not real common to see them out) and excellent eaters.



Sand boas are great too; male East African (or Kenyan) sand boas only get about 12-14 inches and can live in a 10 gallon with deep substrate. the females need a 20 gal. They are friendly and small, but constantly hide in substrate with only the top of their head showing, and can be finicky eaters at times.



Several of the kingsnakes and milksnakes are also good possibilities...they tend to be more nervous and shy as babies than the corn snakes, but usually get calm with age and size

here's a pic of my banded cali. kingsnake...he's pretty active during the day, more than other kings I've seen.


and this is my tangerine phase honduran milksnake


Another option are the tree boas, particularly the Amazon tree boas...they need a little more space as adults, maybe a 30 gal tall would be sufficient, and you could stand it on one end to add more vertical height (also takes up less space then a 20 gal in terms of area it needs to sit on). They are beautiful snakes and come in many different colors. They are fairly small, and generally good eaters. They are the BEST when it comes to display! They spend most of the day out on a perch and mine really only uses the ground hide boxes during the night. But, they are NOT very friendly, in general and are more of a display pet than anything else. I have seen a few that were tame, and we're working with our baby yellow ATB right now, but my two adults will bite like crazy when I reach in to get them!






-----
-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 Dumeril's boa (Hannibal)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
0.0.1 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amel. corn snake (Morgan LaFay) RIP
0.0.2 baby corns (Romulus and Remus)
- 1 normal, 1 ghost
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.1 garden phase amazon tree boas (Pegasus, Lenore)
0.0.1 baby yellow amazon tree boa (affectionately called
Snuggles)
0.0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (maybe Octavian)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 bassett hound/black and tan coonhound mix (Luke)
0.1 Boxer (Zoe)
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)
2.0 rats (Pan, no name yet)

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