Suggestions for a 4ft planted vivarium

[Antheridium94]

Hello,

Just looking for some ideas. I recently set up a fully planted bioactive vivarium and it often has humidity of 60-70%. I was looking for some suggestions for suitable species of snake for a 4ft by 18 inch as I've been struggling to find any that would be appropriate. If possible I wanted to keep something other than a ball python, as I already have one of those.

Thank you for your time .

[chairman]

It would almost be easier to list the snakes you can't keep in a cage like that. You have a lot of options available to you. The problems you may run in to are:

1. Heavy bodied snakes will destroy plants.
2. Burrowing snakes will dig up plants or otherwise destroy root systems.
3. Snake fecal matter is acidic (I think) so plants that don't like acidic soil may suffer.

I don't know what your tastes are but I would consider garter snakes, ribbon snakes, rough or smooth green snakes, and colubrids (corns, kings, etc). There are some dwarf boas that might work, as would small pythons like childrens.

[Antheridium94]

Hello,

Firstly thank you for the reply, those are all great suggestions and really interesting snakes (haha its really hard to pick).

Luckily I got a very limited number of plant species, as I wanted to make sure they would be safe for the reptile, and it will be the first time I have done this type of set up, so I can double check the requirements first.

Again, in terms of my tastes I have a slight tendency towards boids and pythons in general, but as I said above all species are fascinating in their own rights, so thats not a hard and fast rule for me.

A small garter snake group would be wonderful in there I imagine .

In terms of dwarf boas though, I did want to clarify, I looked into this myself but the rosy boa seems to like it a little dryer and the other small species were burrowing, so may I ask which species you are referring to so I know what I missed?

Thank you again and kind regards,
Jade

[chairman]

I was referring to some of the Central American boas. Several of them stay around 4 or 5 feet in length. I want to say that someone here on the forum keeps and breeds one of the Central American localities.

[Antheridium94]

Ah, of course, I didn't actually think about them, I assumed they might crush the plants a little, but it might be worth considering. It would be amazing to try some of the locality specific boa species. Although, I think I'd rather gain a little more experience with my BCI first before I acquire a central american species.

But in the future, I would definitely love to keep central american species (I do like sonoran and hog island boas) and hopefully breed them if possible, so I'll probably ask again at some point . Thanks for letting me know.

I might actually just keep the vivarium maintained until I feel confident enough in my boa husbandry to own another.

Thank you again for your responses, they've got me thinking a lot and I've got plenty of time to decide, it's all interesting and exciting.

Kind Regards,
Jade