Helicops angulatus,
feeding a group together.
At first I thought feeding these snakes together would be a
problem, I had thought it may lead to animals not getting enough food, getting
bitten or even the smaller animals being eaten.
However I have now tried this a few times and found it very
easy. (If you do read any of my posts, you’ll see I’m wrong quite a bit…..)
Even
the biggest snake which was in slough didn’t attempt to bother the others.
In these clips I used a mix of defrosted lance fish
(probably Ammodytes
tobianus) and defrosted Amblypharyngodon
mola, these I purchase from my local Bangladeshi store.*
I put in a lot of
food while keeping some back in case I need to separate animals if aggression arises
or to target feed if extra feeding may be needed.
Although the lancefish are marine/brackish I have
used them as they are only a small part of the diet and to help bulk up the
amount of food offered to help defuse possible aggression.
*These shops sell a huge range of fish
including many fresh water species. Many are wild caught, and all the ones I’ve
checked are listed as of least concern on fishbase (http://www.fishbase.org/search.php ) but they do sell lots of Pangasius
and Clarias, these will be farmed
with all the associated problems this can bring. The fish are also packed in
large blocks of water = water miles :(
