Reptile & Amphibian Forums

While I do discourage the use of soaking pools for green anacondas in private collections, I would also see no problem with their use if designed and maintained in the manner that Shane has in his post below (Sept. 3). The steps he has taken to limit bacterial growth, maintain proper water temperatures, and keep the system clean is admirable, and definitely what is required to make these pool setups work successfully, and not cause additional health and stress issues.

The problem is most people that maintain anacondas in private collections are many times unable (time constraints), or sometimes not disciplined enough, to put the necessary work into these pool systems to maintain them properly. Contaminated pool water is a serious stressor and health concern with captive greens, not to mention the ability to keep this water at the proper temps. The ability of water to conduct heat from the body of a submerged animal is under estimated by many, and it is critical to maintain these pools around 80 F to avoid rapid cooling to below optimal body temps with this species. This is especially true with individual specimens that will stay in these pools for extended periods even when the water is well below optimal temps. And this is where the cleaning issue is so critical, because this warmer pool water encourages accelerated bacterial growth as well.

These are some of the issues I have with the use of pool systems for captive green anacondas. While I definitely do not feel that they are needed for the captive maintenance of greens, I do believe that if one is willing to put the work into it that Shane has, I feel that these pools could easily generate natural behavior in this species not seen with other setups. However, I still cannot overly stress the importance of close attention and proper maintenance with the use of these systems.

Kelly

A month or so ago I was visiting the Shedd aquarium, and got to see their large anaconda, which was submerged much like a caiman, as it seems to be in nearly all the pictures I've seen of it. I wondered what they would think of your husbandry methods.

That's the great thing about organizations like zoos and aquariums. They have the funding to afford the high tech equipment and the staff to operate and maintain large and complex natural exhibits like pool systems and rain forest setups. I love these natural systems for captive animals and it would be great if more private collections could do this as well, as I actually prefer these over newspaper and plastic. I would really like to maintain the larger species in my collection in this manner, but personally do not have the funds or the time to maintain these large natural systems properly. However, I do have most of the smaller species I maintain in these systems and they do quite well in them. Below are a few examples of my enclosures. These are much less time consuming and easier to maintain obviously, than these same setups would be for larger snake species, and I am able to keep up with the maintenance on these. I have been to the Shedd Aquarium several times and it is one of the best in the country. Many people don’t realize the other representatives of vertebrate classes this facility maintains besides just fish species. It has been some time since my last visit and I have not seen the anaconda exhibit, but definitely need to make the trip again. Thanks,

Kelly

I love naturalistic vivaria, too. The Art of Keeping Snakes, by Philippe De Vosjoli, and Natural Terrariums, by Philip Purser, are both fantastic resources on the subject. De Vosjoli writes at length about living (or "bioactive" substrate systems, which is an absolutely fascinating subject, and one I wish more herpers were interested in.

And you are absolutely right about Shedd's displays. A couple of the highlights for me were seeing the komodo dragon display and the group of caiman lizards in their habitat, surrounded by snail shells.

For quite a long time i had read kelly's views on keeping anacondas without soaking pools and completely disagreed with him.I have been to the pantanal in brasil and the llanos in venezuela and i can tell you both greens and yellows are almost completely aquatic.Anacondas spend far less time out of water than caimans do but you would never hear anyone suggest keeping a caiman without a soaking pool would you? However, i now believe kelly to be absolutely right and would advise any would be anaconda keepers to maintain them without soaking pools unless they can provide zoo type water facilities.I have had a number of large anacondas die recently,all of these snakes were perpetual soakers.following autopsy all these snakes were found to be suffering from mycobacterium infection. This is a particulary nasty bacteria for which there is no effective treatment and it is always closely tied to bodies of water. When greens are small it is very easy to maintain water bowls hygenically however as they become larger it becomes much more of an issue and believe me dragging a 130lb snake out of a water container full of faeces and urine is not much fun and really impractical.Now i keep all my greens as kelly does and they do fine like this and infact they tend to feed better. Humidity does not seem to be a problem either,they do fine in the 45-60% range. Obviously if you can provide a large temperature controlled pool with a filter for your snake that would be fantastic, but how many people can actually do that at home?

First off, thanks Kelly for the kind words regarding my set up, I appreciate it. I too believe that most cannot keep their anacondas with large ponds. With some work however, it is possible. My green anaconda is very large (I actually weighed her the other day at 186 lbs) but she totes fairly easily most of the time. This allows me to pull her from her pool without too much worry. I also pull her pond for 2 weeks following each feed (every 9 or so weeks) so that she isn't able to soak in a pond full of feces until I can get home from work to change it out, so this allows me to keep that aspect of her husbandry in check. I also, as stated, treat her pond and everything in it with Bioshield which kills bacteria even in water so I think that helps with keeping things as clean as possible. She also has a dry cycle for a month or so each year that helps. I also have a large 10 foot yellow anaconda that has a pond in her enclosure; I maintain it the same way. The one thing that I have noticed about both of these snakes is that they actually do not spend all of their time in their ponds. The yellow anaconda spends only a few hours (that I've seen) a week in her pond even though it is maintained at 80 degrees. The green is more aquatic, but will sometimes spend weeks without going into her pond. Again it is maintained at 80 degrees. I keep both of their enclosures at 70% to 80% humidity which may be why they are not constantly soaking in thier ponds. Both are very healthy animals. I maintain them as well as my retics, Afrocks, and other reptiles in a building built strictly for them, so they are not in my house, which makes it possible to have a large enclosure with pond for my green anaconda. If I kept her in the house there would be no way to house her the way I do, which is why I agree that for most the large setups are impractical. Also, I do not believe that filtration would work very well with large anacondas due to the nature of their urates and feces. Back when I was in the zoo field even very large sand filtration units couldn't do much with the feces of semi aquatic reptiles such as crocodiles, and truth be known, large anacondas, when they go, make a much bigger mess (urates especially) then even 550 lb crocs. Just my opinion.
Best regards,
Shane

I dont keep anacandas but still i know that anacandas are called water boas for a reason. In the wild they spend alot of time in the water. it seems to me that an anacada would be stressed without a big pool to swim in. almost like a snake with no hide box. have you noticed this at all?

The male Green Anaconda Kelly Haller and I have used for breeding for the past seven years, which I purchased as a captive newborn has been maintained in a dry cage his whole life. He is a couple of months shy of 18 years old and is the least stressed snake I have ever seen. A wild caught adult may not adapt well but young and captive born babies with only a small drinking bowl do quite well. Jud