Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am considering a pair of CB Gulf Salt Marshes but have found little about the captive care.

How does it differ for other nerodia?

Do they show a preference for salt water / brackish food? If so, has anyone tried the brackish livebearers at aquarium stores? Do they contain thiamanese? (pardon my spelling).

Can they be kept successfully in a fresh water environment?

How is breeding different from other nerodia?

Thank You
Cam Hanna
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"I'm tired of being a wannabe bowler! I wanna be a bowler!!"
-- Homer Simpson

My friend has the one that we caught last year. I kept a clarkii X confluens hybrid until my collection had some problems and many snakes were wiped out. They do fine with freshwater and will eat freshwater fish. We would also give it saltwater fish as well that we caught though, such as mullet and mud minnows. They don't differ too much from fasciata. In fact, they were once classified as Nerodia fasciata clarkii. We find broad banded water snakes, diamondbacks, yellowbellies, and blotched in the same area as clarkii (as well as every mix and match between them...many intergrade in certain areas).
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

If you steal in hunger, I will kick you when you try. These stand for me. Name your god and bleed the freak. I'd like to see. How you all would bleed for me.-Alice In Chains

Clarkii have no physiological dependency on brackish water so they can be kept much like any other Nerodia species. In fact, I've found them to be among the hardiest (and friendliest) of the Nerodia. I keep mine in a 20 gallon aquarium on aspen shavings with a large waterbowl and I offer overhead heating via a 60 watt basking lamp. I house mine communually but they are fed in seperate containers in which I offer rosey red minnows or scented mice. They seem to prefer hairless rodents so I feed them pinks or rat pups depending on size. See my website (link below) for more pictures and information.

Are you considering purchasing the Gulf Salt Marsh pair offered on the classifieds by Jeff Schofield? If so, that is a pair that I produced in 2002.

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Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture