Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I aquired 1.2 tentacled snakes on thursday of last week the water acidity is around 6.5-6.8 with tannic water thats around 80-85 degrees the snakes are seemingly well in this dark tea colored water is this how most keep them?

Well although they are from the tropics, I would not heat the water temp to 80 or 85 but rather leave it at room temp of perhaps 75 and warm it in the winter in needed depending on how cool your home gets. I think mountain springs feed the water to the rivers and places where they are found and the water is actually much cooler than we think? I kept mine without a water heater in a home at room temp and never had a problem with them. Good luck.

Dan

These guys are horrible shots i watched them try to catch fish all day strike after strike and not one managed to hang on to one, but there incredibly fast under the water strikers.

Well it depends on which fish prey your feeding. Small goldfish are slow and dumb. I used small shinners from the bait store and they worked well. I think they mainly feed in the evening when most fish are asleep? If I had a case of too fast a fish, I would just net the fish and use long forcepts and put it up to their noses and they bite the fish and swallow it. And you would be very surprised at how big a fish they can fit into their mouths. I once put in some bream from the canal to make the tank look fancy and they were 2-3 inch wide bream. Those tentacle snakes ate them that evening.

Dan

And if you can manage to hang several branches sticking out of the water and place a tube light above or heat lamp, they will often bask. At least mine did especially in the shed phase. But they will also climb out of the tank so use a good tight lid. My little girl called me to tell me she found a big slug in the kitchen. It was one of my tentacles crawling about the house. lol.

Oh, mine bred also but I never had a clutch as they eventually got blister disease and once that starts, you can just about hang it up and start digging a hole. Silvadine cream I heard is a good rememdy, but it did squat for my snakes.

Dan

What are the warning signs for blister disease in aquatic snakes i'm mainly an elapid/python keeper and i've dealt with blister disease before as a matter of fact i am right now i have a constipated retic with a huge air pocket pushing against its lung. But what signs start showing up in the tentaculatum, i'm thinking they could simply be taken out of the water and placed in damp moss untill the blisters healed. I have read that these animals will spend dry seasons and some time in dry cracks above water.

I was wondering if one of those turtle shaped sulur blocks would be beneficial to them. I'm trying to note everything i can about this species, there such an awesome snake but so little is written/known about them i plan on contacted the national and memphis zoo tommorow about them.

Warning signs are them trying too often to bask, indicating they do not like the water quality. In my case, sunshine used to hit the tank a couple hours a day which kept the water quality fine, however, I closed the blinds for a few weeks and did not allow this to happen, and the water went the opposite of what it should be. I guess if you test the water and see a good algae growth, things should be fine. Of course, imported specimens are easily stressed and the snakes largest organ (the skin), sometimes just does not hold up.

Dan