Guppy hunt!

[hjelte]

hi everyone! Tought I´d share this with you. My radix chasing her own food. I filmed this in december I believe...you wouldn´t believe how much she has grown since I started feeding her pinkys a short while after this....
Here is the youtube-link

YouTube - Garter hunting guppy (http://youtube.com/watch?v=i1bQYXjUG_k)

[Stefan-A]

Nice. :)

I'd love to see mine hunt, purely out of curiosity, but unfortunately (it's debatable, I know) it's illegal to feed live vertebrates to other animals here.

[Snaky]

Thanks for sharing, it's always fun these movies. I find them rather silly when they're fishing small fish. It's quite nice to see in real life, I've seen the same thing with mine on some guppy hunt.

[hjelte]

Nice. :)

I'd love to see mine hunt, purely out of curiosity, but unfortunately (it's debatable, I know) it's illegal to feed live vertebrates to other animals here.

Seriously? I had no idea things were like that in Finland, seeing as we´re in neighbouring countrys and all...but...if you buy guppies in the pet-shop and then feed ´em to your garters....no one will ever know...:rolleyes:

[Stefan-A]

Except if I film it.. ;)

Yeah, it's weird. We usually see Sweden as the country with all the restrictions and patronizing laws. ;) Animal protection is taken very seriously here though. But you can still feed them live worms.

[Sid]

:D Really neat. Thanks for sharing.

Sid

[GarterGuy]

Cool little vid, wasn't sure he was going to catch any of them....LOL.:D

[Cazador]

Christopher,
Nice video! I love how they get completely into the water and swim around to get a meal. Looks like good exercise and a nice bit of stimulation to break up their daily routine. Thanks for sharing,
Rick

[hjelte]

I´m glad that you all liked it. And trust me, she as a bit more accuracy these days ;) I will post a new one the next time it´s guppy-time. And now I´ve learned where the zoom-function on my camera is as well:) But I agree, it is a real treat to get to see them go in to the water and swim around trying to catch the fish, and that was my idea to begin with. To offer more exercise and try to simulate what she might encounter in the wild, so to say.

[hjelte]

Except if I film it.. ;)

Yeah, it's weird. We usually see Sweden as the country with all the restrictions and patronizing laws. ;) Animal protection is taken very seriously here though. But you can still feed them live worms.

I see....well I´m sorry to hear that, for you and your garter that is. Of course I wouldn´t encourage you to violate animal-protection laws:D I was just kidding around....but ok..oh thats right I was gonna ask you, since you said that you had problems finding garters in finland..sorry if I have missed the info somewhere on these pages but what kind of garter was it that you had?? //chris

[hjelte]

Cool little vid, wasn't sure he was going to catch any of them....LOL.:D

Neither was I:D

[Stefan-A]

I see....well I´m sorry to hear that, for you and your garter that is. Of course I wouldn´t encourage you to violate animal-protection laws:D I was just kidding around....but ok..oh thats right I was gonna ask you, since you said that you had problems finding garters in finland..sorry if I have missed the info somewhere on these pages but what kind of garter was it that you had?? //chris
Don't worry about it, I doubt that my snakes even miss the chase. Considering the amounts that they eat, I also doubt that I could keep them on a guppy diet. Speaking of which, I see that they are now both begging for food. :)

Two common garters. One is an s.parietalis and the other is either an s.parietalis, s.sirtalis, or s.sirtalis X s.parietalis mix. I tried to get the thamnophis.com folks to identify it once and those were the three possible conclusions.

If the second one is a parietalis, it does have reduced red pigments, even if the pattern (apart from being lighter in color below the lateral stripe) is pretty much identical to the first one's. The same kind of red markings, but the color is not as bright and gradually go from being red to pink to white. I don't know if there even is such a thing as a hypoerythristic red-sided garter and I'm sure it isn't the right description, but that's the first word that comes to mind. :D Coincidentally, I traced that one back to Sweden, although I still don't know who there raised it.

Oh, and sent the importer an email about the possibility of getting me an atratus couple. Still haven't heard anything and it's the wrong time of year anyway.

[hjelte]

Oh sweet, since I have a parietalis now as well! Maybe they are related...:)

And it´s funny about the atratus-thing. That´s high on my wishlist as well. It has got to be a nordic thing!! :) They seem very interesting in their highly aquatic lifestyle. There´s something about semi-aquatic critters that always captures me...don´t really know why..kind of weird maybe....:D

Oh well, the best of luck to you and your garters!

Chris

Two common garters. One is an s.parietalis and the other is either an s.parietalis, s.sirtalis, or s.sirtalis X s.parietalis mix. I tried to get the thamnophis.com folks to identify it once and those were the three possible conclusions.

If the second one is a parietalis, it does have reduced red pigments, even if the pattern (apart from being lighter in color below the lateral stripe) is pretty much identical to the first one's. The same kind of red markings, but the color is not as bright and gradually go from being red to pink to white. I don't know if there even is such a thing as a hypoerythristic red-sided garter and I'm sure it isn't the right description, but that's the first word that comes to mind. :D Coincidentally, I traced that one back to Sweden, although I still don't know who there raised it.

Oh, and sent the importer an email about the possibility of getting me an atratus couple. Still haven't heard anything and it's the wrong time of year anyway.[/quote]

[Stefan-A]

I'm looking for atratus just because I can pretty much guarantee that nobody in this country has any and because it's the first one alphabetically. ;) It's also one of the easier species to identify and according to one discussion we had on kingsnake.com (I think), it's one of the smaller ones.

Just fed my two snakes f/t mice, btw. Filmed it. Now I'm converting the video to get the file size down and I'll be uploading it asap. 7:58 long and I had to stop before they were finished swallowing.

edit: converted it from QT to DivX, reduced the file size to 1/4 with losing quality.

[Thamnophis]

Nice movie!