Guppy hunt!

[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....

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. 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]

[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.

[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!