Very strange tentacled snake behavior

So I've got a large swamp setup with 3 tentacled snakes in it.

Came home today to one of them above the water entirely, laid out across some branches and pothos. I think this one is the "explorer" of the trio, and is constantly on the move, but never seen anything like this.

I actually thought he was dead, because he looked totally dried up, except his eyes were clear. Never seen one intentionally dry up like this. I began to mess with him with a pair of tongs to sort of do a pokey-inspection and see if I had to remove him from the tank, and he spazzed out and jumped back into the water.

He seems fine now. Did I just observe basking behavior? There used to be a heat lamp in the enclosure but I removed it when I added some small treefrogs to the land area, so I'm thinking maybe he was just looking for a new warm spot. He was kinda chilling in the sun. But with the heat lamp, he always stayed under the driftwood under it in the water.

Anyway, should I be concerned? Was super weird, never seen one above water long enough to dry out like that before.

Think I may have observed some shedding behavior. I've never actually seen any of them shed, although I've seen the results and they seem to have no problem being water snakes in a tank with plenty of stuff to rub up on. When I checked them out this morning, the snake in question had cloudy eyes indicative of an oncoming shed.

So maybe the drying up and hanging out on the branches helped the snake loosen its skin?

I don't think we have any other tentacled snake keepers around at the moment. Very uncommon! Would LOVE to see pictures of yours and their setup!

I'd love to see the pictures of this setup too. It sounds pretty interesting.

+1 for seeing the enclosure. I wasn't aware of any keepers of this snake as well.

Very interested in seeing some pictures! Please share.

I'll try to take some new pics soon, I'm having some humidity issues with the canopy so I may change things around a bit this weekend.

Here's my original post setting up the enclosure:

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...ht=swamp+thing

It doesn't look much like that now as I've introduced some new curly willow branches and a ton of pothos. So it's way, way overgrown now, like a big green pothos box.

And before anybody gets into it, yes, I know I'm doing something inadvisable here. The tank is 6x2', and about 2/3 of the footprint is water, with a max depth of 1' or so. I originally built it for a reimanni snakeneck turtle, but he doesn't use the land at all, and seems to prefer basking mostly in the water. I added in the snakes, originally just one, as a sort of experiment, figuring that if they didn't peacefully coexist with the turtle it wouldn't be difficult to re-house the snakes, as they don't need much space.

And fast forward over half a year, and the turtle completely ignores the snakes. I'd say he thinks they're branches as he often climbs over them (which really just seems to mildly irk them, they don't generally react much if at all), except I've seen him watch them move. And they ignore him as well. There's actually a bit of an ecosystem going on between them: the food he eats is calcium-laden and since he's a messy feeder, the guppies swimming around in there eat his leftovers and are thus appropriately gut-loaded for the tentacled snakes.

I should note that I've got wet/dry sump/refugium, canister, and UV filtration on here, probably enough for an overstocked 400g tank. I've intentionally arranged the tank and limited the direct water flow in such a way that there's still a ton of mechanical filtration going on (especially in the sump and canister) but the waterflow isn't fast enough to disorient the snakes.

In this setup I've seen no snake injury or unusual behavior aside from the OP here, and I've observed the snakes happily eating, leaving behind sheds, and possibly engaging in mating behavior (a small and large one are always entwined) in the enclosure. I'd assume eggs would likely be eaten before I could find them, unless laid on the marshy land area.

I add alder cones, peat, and indian almond leaves for ph stabilization and a mild swampy blackwater effect.

I'm also presently experimenting with establishing a reed frog colony on the unused land. So far so good.

In the water there's guppies, a couple small fancy plecos that hang out in the driftwood, and some ropefish that use the marsh space like an ant farm. Crazy, I know, but up and running nearly a year with essentially zero issues so far. And because the tank generates so much of its own food (the guppies reproduce, the frogs will likely lay eggs/tadpoles if any survive, tons of algae grows, etc) it is incredibly stable and easy to maintain. I spend maybe 1 hour weekly cleaning and doing a water change, and 5 minutes a day feeding the turtle.

Once you've got a good environment for them, tentacled snakes are incredibly easy to keep. Mine are captive bred, purchased from Ben Siegel. I probably buy a sack of feeder guppies once a month when the snakes start getting ahead of the tank guppy reproductive rate.

Sorry for the rant, but this setup is my pride and joy. I'll try to post more pictures when I get some time to dust off my good camera.

He was doing it again yesterday!

I now don't think it's shedding behavior anymore. This does coincide with an increase in humidity in the air (it's very high, although I haven't measured it, I'd guess 80%) and a decrease in ambient temperature. Again, the snake was all up in the pothos and manzanita branches.

Anyway, as per last time, I gave him a nudge with some tongs and he jumped back into the water. But he seriously looked dried up, almost like he got stuck up there. Except that he had no problem getting down.

I tried getting a video but his return to the water was too fast. But, when he ran off he startled one of my frogs, which gave me a great video opportunity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB2XJUb7os8

So if nobody on here is keeping them these days, does anybody know somebody who does? I know they have them at the Central Park Zoo in NYC, but emailing their info address does me no good.

Uber cool setup. Thanks for sharing. :gj::gj:

Don't know anything about the snakes. Perhaps giving the breeder a call and throwing some questions his way? Also, I know University of Pennsylvania has some wicked vet departments and know some pretty obscure information, maybe give them a call?

Good luck with them, sounds like they are healthy and you are doing everything right.

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Originally Posted by Pyrate81

Uber cool setup. Thanks for sharing. :gj::gj:

Don't know anything about the snakes. Perhaps giving the breeder a call and throwing some questions his way? Also, I know University of Pennsylvania has some wicked vet departments and know some pretty obscure information, maybe give them a call?

Good luck with them, sounds like they are healthy and you are doing everything right.

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Hah, thanks. I'm definitely taking a few risks, but so far there haven't been any problems. I'll definitely check out U Penn, any source of knowledge is worth exploring!

OK now I have more concerns. I saw the snake doing it last night and today again, and it seemed clear it's undergoing a shed. It has splotches of skin beginning to come off underwater, albeit fairly unevenly.

However my concern is that the snake looks really skinny. Like wrinkled, almost. Most of the other tentacled snakes look like this to some extent, they have weirdly loose skin compared to terrestrial snakes.

But a bit above his vent this guy's stomach is concave, and almost looks like it folds down into the skin to make a sort of > above his vent. I can't get clear pictures of this due to glare on the glass and his natural camo colors. I might be overestimating how severe the problem is, but it's hard to tell.

I'm planning on adding some larger fish (female bettas) to the enclosure as I've seen videos of tentacled snakes eating larger prey items than the guppies I feed mine, in the hopes that he'll bulk up. The reptile store I got him from said they fed them mississippi minnows before, which again would be larger than the feeder guppies I get. But there are a LOT of guppies in there at any given time.

Should I attempt to pull him from the tank and put him in a 20g for quarantine/feeding observation? I'm concerned that that would only stress him out even more.

I should note that these guys are rear-fanged and I've seen him strike at a pair of tongs I used to try to move him once. He's almost definitely stressed right now (sheds are supposed to be especially stressful for these snakes) and I really do not want to be tagged by something venomous. Not to mention that unless he's in the branches again, it'll be near impossible to get him out of the tank.

Just speculating here, but I think one of a few things could be happening...

- He could not be eating because of competition with the larger male (hence the seeming skinnier). Although, at the Zoo in NYC they have a bunch set-up in one tank (not saying that's correct though or know about their success with them). This also wouldn't explain the "basking".

- The snake may have some sort of parasite/fungus and is trying to "self medicate" by drying itself. This would explain the weight loss, as well as shedding. This could be due to the introduction of several other animals.

- Depending on the type of water you're using (brackish, salt, fresh), it could be too salty for him and he's trying to excrete some of that salt on "land" where the humidity provides a higher concentration of freshwater.

- It really could just be basking... something not often seen because I'd imagine they'd be skittish above water due to potentially being prey. The heat light was probably too hot for it and basking in the cooler air may actually be nice?

By the way, these snakes are ovoviviparous - meaning no eggs to be found, but live births. Not sure if the births take place on land or in the water though. I'd suggest providing a slightly above water level muddy area for them to burrow in if need be.

I would suggest a quarantine tank for him. To move him, you could use a snake hook/tongs and place him in a bucket or bag filled with water... or use a fishing net. No worries about being bit then. Best of luck with 'em and let us know how it turns out! If you're in NY, anywhere near the Hudson Valley I'd love to take photos of them sometime if you have any interest (I'd send all the digital copies to you).

Thank you, bio, for the thorough response. I'm sending you a PM about photographing my stuff, I'd love if you could do that.

Unfortunately I have a sad ending to the story.

I had an experienced herp vet come by who actually has a colony of these guys himself. We quarantined the snake in a 20g tank with no land and feeders a-plenty, and it was given injections of antibiotics, vitamins, and hydration. It never again willingly put its head under water, except at one point where I think it may have been unconscious from the stress of the move, and as such didn't eat any feeders and passed away after a few days in quarantine.

The vet said that there was no sign of the fungus present that usually wipes out whole colonies. That being said, people usually keep them in very acidic water (to combat said fungus) and mine are at like 7.6 pH. I've got a ton of UV filtration in the tank, so probably any fungus in the water column is getting fried.

Also, I am quite sure that they're normally kept in larger groups than I have. I'm debating if I should attempt to source more or not (I now have 2 left) or possibly donate mine if not.

The vet says that this is not an uncommon occurrence, and in a lot of colonies you'll get a snake who will just go off feed for no explicable reason and not work out.

As an aside, I had no idea they were live-bearers! When I was reading about their husbandry originally I swear I read something along the lines of "these snakes do everything underwater, from eating to laying eggs" but maybe I just read "giving birth" as "laying eggs" or something.

Sorry to hear your loss. That sucks.

At least you know probably what the cause was.

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Originally Posted by Pyrate81

Sorry to hear your loss. That sucks.

At least you know probably what the cause was.

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Haha. Yeah, the cause was "common mystery death syndrome," unfortunately. :(

Off topic but I've never even heard of them before this thread and now my mind is blown. Very cool animals. :)