Wrong Forum, but: Indonesian Water Snake?

[ChristinaM]

The pet store here has some.... labelled Indonesian water snakes. I have no idea where to find info on them, or water species forum they would fall under.

Help direct me where I should be? A latin name would be great.

The only thing I know about this snake is that it eats gold fish.

Thanks

[lolaophidia]

Can you give a description of the snake, since that general name could be almost anything? I've kept a few Asian/Indonesian snakes that ate fish. BTW- goldfish is not a good staple food for snakes due to the high level of thiminase. Do a search on thiminase and garter snakes and you'll see what I mean.

Better yet- if you can post a picture, that would give us a better chance of identifying it. I don't suggest that you buy the snake until you know for sure what species it is. There are some Asian/Indonesian garter like snakes that are venomous and can be dangerous if you don't know what you are working with, like Rhabdophis (keelbacks). The pet store should be able to provide a Latin name for anything they sell.

[ChristinaM]

Thanks Lora, I will get a pic tommorrow of it if he still has it. I would definately like to know "what" exactly it is.

[lolaophidia]

Good deal. I bought some snakes back in the 80's that had all kinds of innocuous common names because the guys importing them didn't know what the chinese characters were on the shipping bags. They just described them as various garter or water snakes due to the feeding habits or general appearance. Found out years later, thanks to the internet, what I actually had. I was really thankful that I was never bitten by those snakes.

Looking forward to your pics! If you can provide even a general description as well, that would help with the identifying.