Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, been browsing the want ads, & though I don't find many hatchlings, I have found several different ratsnakes that I never even heard of back in the 1990s.
A few questions:
What is the rarest of these?
Any newly described to science & the hobby?
Does anyone own any of these?
Any pics?

Matthew

I can't think of any ratsnakes that I had never heard of back in the '90's, but I do remember when many of them were very uncommon on collections. Heck, it does not seem that long ago that Taiwan Beauty Snakes were uncommon, but I'm showing my age...

A few questions:

What is the rarest of these?

Of the snakes currently in the Eurasian Ratsnake Classifieds, I'd have to say either Elaphe flavolineata or Ptyas korras are the two that seem the least common. I think both are common in their native areas, however. Just not commonly imported.

Any newly described to science & the hobby?

Can't think of any.

Does anyone own any of these?

Of the snakes currently in the classifieds, I have kept Gonyosoma janseni and Rhynchophis boulengeri. I have some short term experience with the Bamboo Ratsnakes and Gonyosoma frenata. Currently only keeping Gonyosoma oxycephala, but those were available back in the 1990's so I doubt you are referring to them.

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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

Chris,

Hmm, than janseni is now a FULL species? Not long ago it was just thought of as a color variation of oxycephala..
The ones I don't remember ever seeing in a text are the Bamboo & its relatives. I'm absolutely sure they weren't available in the hobby when I left Kingsnake.com ( sold my PC) back in 2001. Of course, its hard to say with all the revisions in the former Elaphe.
Oh well, its all good.

Sincerely,
Matthew

You might be thinking of the G. janseni from Seleyar, which are all black and very oxycephala like. I don't recall them ever being called a subspecies of G. oxycephala, however. Some of the color variants of G. oxycephala were given subspecific status but the data now suggests instead that G. oxycephala is a polymorphic species.

Maybe you're thinking that back in the '90's the janseni were in Elaphe and the oxycephala were in Gonyosoma?

They are now all considered Gonyosoma, along with Gonyosoma frenata. At least one paper has also proposed that Gonyosoma should include the species G. hogsoni and G. cantoris. Both were formerly placed in Elaphe.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

FYI, I bought the Jansens listed. Neat looking snake...

My first Gonyosoma, wish me luck!!
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Lloyd Heilbrunn

Palm Beach Gardens, Fl.

Good luck for sure! I just traded off the last of my G. janseni. I had both the Seleyar and the Sulawesi forms but did not have a solid breeding group of either so I decided to get them into the hands of someone who did. Also traded off my Malaysian G. oxycephala and now have only the Indonesian G. oxycepahala, which have always been my favorite.

The Sulawesi G. janseni are awesome snakes and I think they will be extremely popular once established in US collections. They are huge and highly variable and a heck of a lot of fun to work with.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

For your sake, I hope those are captive bred! I actually had one of the old G. oxycephala imports back in the early nightmares. I named the 6 ft monster "Lucifer"! It FIT. Really a handful. I do see there is much success in captive breeding so hopefully you got one.

Matthew

Actually, it was just after Gonysoma was erected as a Genus in itself. There was mention of "janseni" but that writer considerd it just a color morph. Actually not surprised about more than one species here.
Question though: Is a Blacktail ratsnake another Gonysoma or another Genus ratsnake altogether?
BTW, nice talking to you again after all these years!

Sincerely,
Matthew

Is a Blacktail ratsnake another Gonysoma or another Genus ratsnake altogether?

Don't know much about them, but I'm 99% certain they are now called Coelognathus flavolineatus, or at least are proposed as such. Same genus as the much more common Radiated Ratsnake.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

Chris,

Any pics of your Javans?

Matthew

My wife is just getting the hang of our new (to us) camera so I have not taken pictures of my current stock. You can look in my KS gallery, which is easy to find, for pictures.

I've got one gray-orange male right now that is a real stunner. I do need to get a picture of that one.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

LOL!

Yeah, learning digital cameras has proven more difficult than I thought. I still can't get decent picks of corals in my salt-water tank. And they aren't even moving!
I'll have to check them out. Are these the Gonys' that come with mixed color schemes like the one in Bartlett's RAtsnake book? That is a nice one, with its yellow head & silver-grey body!

Matthew

Are these the Gonys' that come with mixed color schemes like the one in Bartlett's RAtsnake book? That is a nice one, with its yellow head & silver-grey body!

Not sure if I understand the question exactly, but the Indonesian G. oxycephala do come in a variety of phenotypes, many of which were pictured in Bartlett's book. There are actually even more phenotypes than that.

Hopefully now that CBB specimens are coming available more people will start working with the specific phenotypes and trying to get pure lines.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

Yeah, you got it right. But I only saw one Goni that wasn't the old green kind ( beautiful in its own right!). That one had a yellow head flecked with green on a silver-gray body.

Matthew

My preference is still for the greens, but I have had some of the aberrant ones that I was very fond of. My favorite was the solid orange female followed closely by the dark gray specimen with the yellow head. Both of those lived for a few years but I never paired them, thinking there was something wrong with the male. I regret that now. I have had two blue specimens but they died shortly after arrival.

Currently I have a few gray ones with an orange wash that I think will grow up in spectacular adults (actually, one is already a spectacular adult). I also have a female that appears to be turing silver, which is a color I have yet to see in person in the adult form.

I also have 1.2 of the brownish colored ones but these seem to have a yellow wash to them. But they are hatchlings so it's hard to say what they will turn into. I have seen pictures of adults with the same color and never much cared for them. But I have to say seeing them in person is totally different.
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephala (Javan, mixed colors)

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

Chris,

Yeah, the green morph is the only one I've had actual experience in keeping. Alas, it was back when they were ALL wild caught imports. Defensive doesn't come close to a description! LOL

Matthew
Actually, I see Bartlett had two pics of the silver with the yellow head. I'd like to own that beauty.