I put my mussuranas together tonight. Placing highly ophiophagus snakes together for mating is something I look forward to... and also dread.
The good news was that there was no obvious aggressive behavior from either of them. There was some open vent tail raising from the female. The male made a very deliberate "deposit".
However that seemed to be it for them. They acted like they were more interested in getting away from the other. I decided that was good enough and put them back in their respective cages.
I put the "deposit" from the male under the microscope and, well, let's just say there is NO DOUBT he's a male. There was what appeared to be a very high concentration of sperm, at least to my untrained eye.
I remember the first time I put my indigos together, and how I was scared to leave them alone fearing the male might decide he was hungry. Now I know that a good male indigo will take about 10 seconds to get down to business with a female.
That was not the way the Mussuranas behaved tonight. However, I'll take no aggression, tail raising and dropped sperm as a positive sign.
Updates as things progress.
Doug Taylor
