Acrochordus

My history with Acrochordus is short and painful, and although even a short internet search will show this species is difficult to keep to say the least, that didn’t stop me jumping at the chance to get some, 3 times…

I have over the last year or so, since I started keeping/killing this species started to write lots of things about what I've done and what I think I should have done. Looking back it seems clear that;

• The animals I've received have not generally been in good condition. 
•  The internet information on this species is poor (or confusing). 
•  I shouldn’t have bought these snakes, or at least the second, or third group. 
•  A fool and his money etc. etc….

The first 2 I received were in poor condition with the fungal infection that seems synonymous with this species, both were thin and had granular marks on their head and bodies.

1) Blisters on the body.

2) Granular marks on the body.

                                                                                                                                            




The jury was out on how they should be kept*, I went for a 75 x 30 cm wide tank with about 10cm of water, heated to 28-30oC, with a small internal filter.

Although it was believed the snakes had probably come from a brackish/marine habitat I was worried about housing them brackish long term due to dehydration. However I thought the fungal infection may be kept at bay by offering salt water. I compromised by alternating the salinity.
Every time I did a water change I changed the SG, sometime making it totally fresh then swinging towards brackish and then on a couple of occasions to nearly full strength sea water.

Substrate was silver sand, bog wood and plastic pipes for hiding in; the snakes have normally favored the sand, burying themselves in the sand, under the wood or a pipe. Although the tank had a mature filter added, due to the changes in salinity I doubt this was functioning properly but as I was doing regular large water change to increase/decrease the salinity I didn’t notice any increase in NH3 or NO2. Basically the filter was there to move the water around a bit and to make me feel better.
There was no lighting except for ambient lighting from the room and the tanks were frequently shaded over at least one end to darken them further.

As these were soo thin I started to tube feed them a mix of Hills a/d diet, Nutrabal (calcium and mineral mix) and glucose, all mixed together in a thin gruel. This was quite easy to begin with but as their strength increased it became more difficult.

They were tube fed every 4 or 5 days for a few weeks then we tried force feeding small fish. These were either pre-killed guppies or mollies or small shop brought frozen fish such as lance fish (probably Ammodytes tobianus.)

These were all pushed quite far into the snakes body to stop them regurgitating but after a couple of months the snakes would normally swallow the food after it had been pushed just past their heads.

Then, one day both snakes started to actively swallow the food as it was placed in their mouths, this continued with the “fussiest” one from then on, while within a week the stronger animal started to feed on live fish placed into its tank.
By then the markings on both of their bodies had started to fade and the snakes looked much better.

3) The darker snakes marks starting to fade.

4) The lighter snake.

At first the water level had to be dropped so the fish would be splashing around if the snake was near, but after another month of this the snake would catch fish easily in the full 10cm deep water.

5) The stronger snake catching live fish.

At this time the weaker snake’s skin started to break out with the fungal infection again. It then developed stomatitis, started to rapidly decline in condition and died soon after.  The other snake was going from strength to strength.

I then saw more A. granulatus for sale from a different supplier and ordered 4; these arrived looking in good condition except for the solid looking crust over each of their heads. These snakes should not have been sold.

6) Granular markings easily visible on their heads

After contacting the supplier and finding out they had been caught in full strength sea water I tried this for a while but within a week 1 had died and within 2 weeks all were dead.

The original snake was doing fine, but then the fungal infection flared up again and it died very soon after. This I believe was caused by cross contamination by me, even though I serviced the new snakes last and tried to keep everything separate. A very frustration time.

May 2012.

I received 4 Acrochordus granulatus and 2 Acrochordus javanicus.

All the snakes appeared very healthy except for one A. granulatus that had stomatitis which had been treated, this wasn’t actually for sale but I bought it as I wanted more snakes and its overall condition appeared good. Due to lack of space I had to house the granulatus together and the 2 javanicus together. My only real concern was being able to tell the snakes apart after feeding.

Housing;

The A. granulatus were kept in the same style as before, while the A. javanicus were initially housed the same but in totally fresh water, then the water level was increased over a few weeks.

Acrochordus granulatus;

First dead snake after 6 days, second on the 7^th day. Both appear to have the granular markings appearing on their heads. I did a large water change with salt water and darkened the sides even more. Both the dead snakes had been very active, the third much less so and the forth very quiet.

On the 7^th day I force fed both of the others, the biggest most active snake appears to be about to slough (reddish tinge to its skin) and regurgitated. The second snake kept it down.

6 weeks later.

The last granulatus died yesterday, it hadn’t fed on its own and hadn’t sloughed either. I think they may need to slough, possibly repeatedly to rid the fungal infection but if not feeding it may lessen their ability to shed?

Possibly a more aggressive feeding regime may help this, the first 2 were force fed quite often and they did shed and survived longer.

The javanicus are still alive and active, one has had a strange looking mark around one eye, it looks a bit like a knock and I’m hoping it will slough it off when it sheds.

7) javanicus with mark around one eye, possibly caused by knocking into something?

(In the article by Lilywhite (Lilywhite 1996) he mentions javanicus caught in sea water getting an opaque cover to their eye lens if kept in freshwater, this condition doesn’t appear to be the same as my animal has and, as its only one snake and one eye I am reluctant to increase the salinity.)

*I couldn’t find a lot of real information on the captive care of this species that I would believe, there is one person who has done very well with them, Dr. Harvey B. Lilywhite who had a paper published in Zoo biology 15: 315-327 (1996). I would recommend if you want to keep this species you read, re-read and then every so often read this again.

A lot of what I have read on them I have found rather difficult to believe. Sites saying they have kept a species for a few weeks or months before they died but then telling us how to keep them. I have kept this species for a few weeks or months and then they died, so if you keep them like I did, yours may too!

I write to say what I’ve done and if it went well, with the file snakes I think my husbandry was possibly OK, but I may have had snakes in poor condition when I got them and my husbandry wasn’t good enough to let them get over this.

The main internet site for this species has recently updated its info and is now much better, however I still have trouble reading it due to its apparent assumptions, poor grammar and, (in my opinion) poor guidelines. And if you read something and notice that some thing's seem wrong, how much will you believe the rest?

As I say in my profile information, the internet has been a massive help in animal husbandry in recent years, but it is this species and the misinformation on it that has made me want to write more than any other.
Seeing pictures or videos you’ve taken on the web is great and a bit of a buzz, but as sites have no peer review it becomes difficult to know who to listen to, especially when they all seem to say they know the most.

There are some interesting videos on YouTube, but there really doesn’t seem the wealth of (honest) info there should be for a difficult animal. Surely people should be posting about how or how not to keep these and not adding another poor quality video that people have to wade through trying to find the good ones?

Come on people, look at your film and think is it really worth people spending their time looking at it when they are trying to learn?

I hope mine are, I have LOTS of footage of my animals or of me doing really cool stuff but it’s really only of interest to me, so I don’t post it. That’s why I have pictures of some of my animals rather than videos, I’d have to upload the videos onto YouTube and then people may watch them when they are just looking for general info. If you’re reading this blog I want you to see what I’m talking about but you don’t have to look at lots of clips that tell you nothing. So I plan, with my YouTube vid’s that when I see better ones I’ll delete mine. OK, rant over (for now).

I was speaking to a very experience veterinarian recently about the granulatus and the trials of keeping them. He asked when it was going to become accepted that perhaps this species isn’t suited to captivity. Although I greatly respect this man and would trust his judgment above most others, I do think this species can and will be kept, BUT it really shouldn’t be an “off the shelf” purchase.

They should be imported only by suppliers who have strong contacts in the snake’s home range who can guarantee what conditions the snake were caught in, salinity, temperature etc. And that the animals were well cared for before shipping. They should have been pre-ordered by experienced hobbyists or zoo professionals who will honestly share their experiences with others.

20 years ago, when I started working in the aquatic retail industry we used to say that Acropora's were impossible to keep but sold Goniopora’s  and Catalaphyllia as an easy to keep corals because they live for months or even years.

Now, Acroporas are sent through the post as frags and although far from easy they are very keep-able.

To sum up my ideas on the granulatus, based on what I have read, seen done by others and by my own experiences.

• Keep them warm; 28-30oC
• Dark, lots of hiding places and subdued lighting.
• Soft sandy substrate, my animals tended to burrow into this rather than hide in the pipes provided.
• Probably feed frequently to begin, especially if the snakes appear weak or have bad fungal growth, this MAY help them slough more frequently and lessen the infection.
• Don’t buy them!

Postscript 01.07.2012;

The A. javanicus are still alive, neither has shown interest in food so have both been force fed twice, which they have kept down.

Pictures 1-4 by Jane Hallam.