Very strange tentacled snake behavior

[dkspftw]

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.