Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi folks!
I know what all the books say, but I was wondering which snake attains a larger size (on average) in CAPTIVITY , Corais or erebennus? I bred a pair of Texans about 12 years ago, kept one of the babies and he grew from 19 inches to just under 5 feet in just 18 months (voraciuos eater), before I had to give him up (due to a lenghty 2 year Korean assignment). I get this question sometimes but I personally think both snakes reach about the same size. What do you guys think? ? ?

I know this is not too important but thanks for sparing a minute!

you're right.....there's no difference between the two really. either one can get quite large quickly in captivity. same for the other subs....i have a 13 month old uni here now that i heldback and he is slightly over 5' already w/ no sign of slowing down. he was the next to last one to start eating on his own last year but since then, eats small meals every couple days non-stop. now w/ all these cb yt's out there, you're gonna see some REALLY big dry's in a few years! lol.........

That's big for such a young uni!
Remember me in about a year and post a picture of that "little guy, or when he reaches 7 or 8 feet.
I'm about to pick up an eastern in about two weeks (20" hatchling)(I'm currently overseas). We'll see hoe he does, since I will never have to get rid of him (no more overseas tours). I'm retiring out of the Army next week. AMEN!

Yeah, I think Easterns and Texans have about the same maximum size potential, the Easterns maybe runing a couple of inches larger, but not really significantly, The listed record lengths that I've seen showed the Eastern at about 103 inches and the Texan at about 100 inches as I recall.

Not to split hairs, but you listed the Yellowtail and Texans sub-species names in your question. Corais is the Yellowtail, erebennus is the Texan. The Eastern is Drymarchon corais couperi. Since you said Eastern, but used corais as the ssp name, I assumed you were actually talking about couperi. If you were asking about corais, then there's no doubt, corais wins that contest hands down. Although I've never seen one that large, I've heard of corais reaching lengths approaching 10 feet.

For reference, the subspecies of Drymarchon are:

D.corais corais Yellow Tail Cribo
D.c.unicolor Unicolor Cribo
D.c.rubidus Red Tail Cribo
D.c.melanurus Black Tail Cribo
D.c.couperi Eastern Indigo Snake
D.c.erebennus Texas Indigo Snake
D.c.caudomaculata (new subspecies)
D.c.margaritae Margarita Island Cribo
D.c.orizabensis ? (no common name)

There are some proposals to change the taxonomy for the Drymarchon group, giving some animals species status (such as the Eastern Indigo because of distinct differences in head scalation) and regroup others under D.corais sspdue to various morphological differences. Wolfgang Wuster has a good article regarding the proposed changes that can be viewed at www.indigosnakes.com.

Yes, I meant couperi (trying to type faster than i can think - I'm getting older too).
Thanks for the info. After I retire from the army (currently in Germany) late next week I'll be back in NC. for good. I am looking forward to starting out with a 20" Couperi hatchling that I'll be getting from Rick Sladick.

Behold the tortoise, he makes no progress unless he sticks his neck out! ! ! LOL.

Cool! Good luck with your Eastern.

THANKS!

An old copy of Wright&Wright (the Taxonomy bible) mentions seeing Texas snakes larger than any couperi...None however were measured...I think 9' is probably tops for either..CG
-----
Carl W Gossett
Garage Door Herps
Monument,Colorado...northern territory of the Great Republic of Texas

Yeah, that's a problem with some of this documentation. Different sources (all credible) give different figures. I went back and looked up the numbers I had seen for couperi and erebennus:

Dr. Robert Mount (Auburn University) lists the maximum length for couperi at 2,630mm (8.62 feet). There was no data for erebennus because this was from a work on Alabama snakes.

Behler and King (Audubon Field Guide) list the maximum length for both subspecies at 103.5" (8.62 feet)

Roger Conant (Peterson Field Guide) lists the maximum length at 103.5" (8.62 feet) for couperi and 100.25" (8.35 feet) for erebennus.

I dunno...I guess it suffices to say thay all get pretty big.

Has anyone on here ever seen a 10 foot Y/T? I've heard about them but never seen one that big.