New sea snake discovered in Qld

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Gee it would kill them to give us a look at a photo of the critter! :(
 
awesome!
wish it was a land snake which we could eventually add to the hobby!

silly question but is it even possible to keep sea snakes?!
 
JrFear said:
silly question but is it even possible to keep sea snakes?!
Click to expand...

I'm not too certain of this. They would have to be wild caught, so WA or NT species, which leaves out a lot of my favourites like the Laticauda colubrina. Laticaudae would be easier to keep on one hand due to their semi-terrestrial nature, but they can be specialist feeders (Laticauda laticaudata eats only eels, for instance). However there are generalist feeders like the Olive Sea Snake that pretty much smash whatever you put in front of them (fish-wise), but you would need a very large tank to keep them in (larger than most people would be able to accommodate, certainly), as unlike the Laticaudae they are exclusively aquatic. My sisters ex-partner wrote his doctorate on sea snakes, and found that they were virtually impossible to keep alive on a small scale for more than a few weeks in captivity. However his method of husbandry (open shallow tanks near Herron Island) may not have been ideal compared to todays standard (he attained his PhD a loooong time ago).

Even though the potential exists to collect from the wild (NT and WA permits), the respective departments may not classify any sea snake as being "native" to Australia due to the fact that, in my very limited knowledge, there are no known sea-snake nesting sites in Australia or its waters (Could someone please verify this for me? I'm pretty certain, but am unable to cite a reference on this).
 
Sea snakes can't be kept in the NT. The collection permits don't really work the way you suggest either.

PMyers said:
I'm not too certain of this. They would have to be wild caught, so WA or NT species, which leaves out a lot of my favourites like the Laticauda colubrina. Laticaudae would be easier to keep on one hand due to their semi-terrestrial nature, but they can be specialist feeders (Laticauda laticaudata eats only eels, for instance). However there are generalist feeders like the Olive Sea Snake that pretty much smash whatever you put in front of them (fish-wise), but you would need a very large tank to keep them in (larger than most people would be able to accommodate, certainly), as unlike the Laticaudae they are exclusively aquatic. My sisters ex-partner wrote his doctorate on sea snakes, and found that they were virtually impossible to keep alive on a small scale for more than a few weeks in captivity. However his method of husbandry (open shallow tanks near Herron Island) may not have been ideal compared to todays standard (he attained his PhD a loooong time ago).

Even though the potential exists to collect from the wild (NT and WA permits), the respective departments may not classify any sea snake as being "native" to Australia due to the fact that, in my very limited knowledge, there are no known sea-snake nesting sites in Australia or its waters (Could someone please verify this for me? I'm pretty certain, but am unable to cite a reference on this).
Click to expand...
 
interesting!
does any one know where any sort of sea snake breeds? obviously they lay there eggs on land rite?

would be interesting to see them in captivity! i wonder how big of a tank you would need!
maybe a 5 mtr squared? or bigger!?!
 
True sea snakes all have live young. Sea kraits lay their eggs on land. Sea snakes cant be kept in Australia.
 
waruikazi said:
The collection permits don't really work the way you suggest either.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure at all how those permits work. Never looked in to it, myself.

-Peter said:
True sea snakes all have live young. Sea kraits lay their eggs on land.
Click to expand...

That's right. So really, would any true sea snake be considered a native of any particular land-mass? I wouldn't think so, but I don't know a great deal about this stuff.

-Peter said:
Sea snakes cant be kept in Australia.
Click to expand...

I spoke of this with a wildlife officer from QLD at last years Gold Coast Expo, who stated that as they were listed as a "restricted species", then someone with a restricted licence could hypothetically keep them in QLD. However, seeing as there are no specimens in captivity, the point was rather moot. She seemed rather confused by a lot of aspects of the licencing system though, so my guess is she didn't really know what she was talking about in this area, and was unable to provide a definitive answer either way.
 
Marine reptiles are specifically excluded from being kept in qld
 
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