Housing Central American garters with other species

[-MARWOLAETH-]

They like their water! I can speak for Cuitzeos which I've seen spend over 8 hours in a water bowl without coming out. In the wild Cuitzeos spend a lot of time in Lake Cuitzeo hunting fish.

Have you seen them luring fish with their tail yet?That would be great to see.

[chris-uk]

Have you seen them luring fish with their tail yet?That would be great to see.

They haven't had the opportunity. The water bowl is too small for any hunting behaviour. If I want to try I'd have to get the old 60l aquarium running and drop in Lacrimosa (the female seems more canny and sharp than the male) and a couple of guppies. I think even a 60l aquarium is too small, the other option is the bath... Char would be likely to veto me feeding a snake in the bath. The issue is really that a Cuitzeo with fish in a small volume of water seems like shooting fish in a barrel (no evidence for this, they may struggle to catch guppies) and guppies may not naturally show any interest in the tail like the native fish in the wild.

[johnc79@hotmail.com]

I'm hoping to get a scotti within the next few months, but I wanna make sure that they can be housed with.. normal.. Species. I.e. parietalis, concinnus etc. just making sure there's not anything different in care?

I think it can be done with males as size wise there not much bigger than the "normals". Saying that males are shy and could be out done at feeding. The problem with females they can be much bigger than females of other garters and very aggressive at feeding time. I did keep my cuitzeos in single sex groups with atratus but found it more trouble than it's worth. I'm not saying it can not be done but in my experience it would be better keeping them with other central American thamnophis species of similar size and behavior. Brumation is different to as there winters are warm days cold nights.

[RedSidedSPR]

I drop some guppies in there for mine every now and then, they love it.

If scotti like the water that much I'll definitely upgrade the water bowl at some point.. didn't realize they loved water that much.

I think it can be done with males as size wise there not much bigger than the "normals". Saying that males are shy and could be out done at feeding. The problem with females they can be much bigger than females of other garters and very aggressive at feeding time. I did keep my cuitzeos in single sex groups with atratus but found it more trouble than it's worth. I'm not saying it can not be done but in my experience it would be better keeping them with other central American thamnophis species of similar size and behavior. Brumation is different to as there winters are warm days cold nights.

Well, I can always seperate him if need be. He would be in with a male concinnus and a checkered, maybe even just the concinnus... they would all be males with plenty of room. knowing the concinnus, he won't be a problem, we'll see how the new guy is. I think i'll go ahead and house them together.. but I'll keep that in mind thanks