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KUSA (Denver, Colorado) 29 April 06 Baby water snakes at the Denver Zoo (Marissa Pasquet)
Denver: Kyle Dyer found a group of unusual water snakes at the Denver Zoo.
The tentacled water snakes are not your typical snakes. The snakes' color helps it blend in among the underwater roots and branches. Even the little spikes on their faces blend in.
The snakes are hard to detect because they don't move. When the prey comes close the snakes strike out a few inches and use their quick and very sharp teeth to capture their prey.
All snakes breathe air, even water snakes. They come to the surface to get their share of fresh air. But they remain in the water all of the time. The snakes are even born in water.
The water snakes were 2-days-old when Kyle paid them a visit.
They were born tail first and then immediately went to the surface to breathe.
From their first breath on, the snakes are ready for anything. They are born fully charged.
They have fully functional venom glands and can poison their prey or protect themselves.
The snake's tentacles help it detect prey, currents in the water and the pheromones in the water from the fish.
The water where the snakes originally came from is in south-east Asia. The water there tends to be murky and these snakes do not have good eyesight.
The snakes are doing very well at the Denver Zoo.
The other zoos around the country have contacted the Denver Zoo asking if they can have some of the baby snakes when they get a bit bigger.

http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=e76d777b-0abe-421a-01c8-6e9e37144158&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf

I looked up Erpeton in my Atlas of Reptiles & Amphibians For The terrarium & it says that keeping healthy imported specimens in a spacious, well planted, heated aquarium rarely presents any problem.

They are colubrids, & there was no mention in that book of venom.

~~Greg~~

I believe they are rear fanged.
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Jeff West
www.westreptiles.com

I believe they are not.
At least not the information I have on them.
Randal Berry

I thought it was somewhat acceptable to consider any colubrid with the exception of north american rats, kings, milks, and bull snakes as venomous (as in having venom) on a scientific and evolutionary stand point.

From what I know about tentacled snakes, they are not opisthoglyphous but this I thought has become trivial and not a requirement for snakes to be considered rear fanged. The example often used I believe is that Rhabdophis is an aglyphous snake that has killed humans.

I have not read anything on tentacled snakes which goes into detail on how important their venom is in the subduction of prey, but I would guess since the snakes hunt in water...they hold onto their food pretty firmly and this to me suggests it is doing "something."

Enough to call it venomous...I think so
Enough to call it venomous in a short common press article...probably not

Just my thoughts while reading through

They definately have glands and enlarged rear teeth. However, it was definately a bit much to refer to them as venomous in the article. Also, I'm a little curious as how the breeding of this fairly common snake was a newsworthy event. Must be a very small zoo and an equally small newspaper on an awfully slow newsday.

This is not to detract from the fact that they are fascinating snakes indeed!

Cheers
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
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Australian Venom Research Unit,
University of Melbourne
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Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit,
Museum Victoria
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http://www.venomdoc.com