What is your dream species of snake?

[WrongPython]

In general, if a snake ever crosses into "dream snake" territory for me and stays at a size a single person could safely handle alone, you'll probably find it here. Being a "dream snake" is pretty much required for me to bring one home, actually. Reptiles fall into either a "like it," "love it," or "gotta have it!" category for me, so something has to be a species that I really, really want before I decide to dedicate 30+ years (and a lot of money) to it.

So, I'm very happy to be keeping one of my dream snakes right now -- Boa imperator longicauda. Between the high iridescence and the crisp black-and-white aneries, they were the boas that got me in to boas. I adore the one I have now and I'm seriously considering bringing home a second one in the future (probably an anery female ).

My other dream species include Argentine boas, diamond pythons, Boelen's pythons, GTPs, ETBs, and Bredl's pythons. In general, occupying a weird ecological niche is a great way to draw me in. I think the first three are a good indicator of how cool I find the cold-weather ancient snakes to be! Most of these species can be found quite easily if you know where to look, but they either reach an adult size I'm not comfortable handling alone long-term (Argentines, diamonds, Boelen's, Bredl's) or have a really big teeth I'd rather not deal with (GTPs, ETBs).

...and for what it's worth, I still love retics, though I'd never want to own a mainland and am pretty sure that even a pure SD would be too much snake for me long-term. They're just so beautiful, intelligent, and awe-inspiring. If I was ever put in charge of a zoo's reptile house and had a team of keepers behind me, I'd love to build a massive 100' naturalistic enclosure (with a pool!) for a normal retic.