# New sea snake discovered in Qld



## Redcc (Feb 23, 2012)

New sea snake discovered in Qld - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)


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## Gruni (Feb 23, 2012)

Gee it would kill them to give us a look at a photo of the critter!


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## Redcc (Feb 23, 2012)

Try this one still not a really great pic.
New Species of Sea Snake Discovered in Gulf of Carpentaria | Biology | Sci-News.com


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## PMyers (Feb 23, 2012)

http://www.venomdoc.com/downloads/2012_Fry_Hydrophis_donaldii.pdf

Enjoy!


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## waruikazi (Feb 23, 2012)

Totally have a man crush on Dr. Fry.


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## -Peter (Feb 23, 2012)

waruikazi said:


> Totally have a man crush on Dr. Fry.



The Ace Rimmer of Toxinocology. Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast. What a guy...


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## Fuscus (Feb 23, 2012)

Hasn't someone else already named it Seasnakeii voldemortis ?


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## Killer_rabbit (Feb 23, 2012)

wonder what else is out there that hasnt been found


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## Wrightpython (Feb 23, 2012)

Killer_rabbit said:


> wonder what else is out there that hasnt been found



I lost my wallet 6 weeks ago it hasnt been found yet


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## Enlil (Feb 24, 2012)

PMyers said:


> http://www.venomdoc.com/downloads/2012_Fry_Hydrophis_donaldii.pdf
> 
> Enjoy!


You and your herpetology porn.


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## mmafan555 (Feb 25, 2012)

Dr Fry is American born but living in Australia right?


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## Fuscus (Feb 25, 2012)

mmafan555 said:


> Dr Fry is American born but living in Australia right?


right. Fry, Brian Grieg | Australian Venom Research Unit


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## JrFear (Feb 25, 2012)

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?!


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## PMyers (Feb 25, 2012)

JrFear said:


> silly question but is it even possible to keep sea snakes?!



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).


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## waruikazi (Feb 25, 2012)

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).


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## JrFear (Feb 25, 2012)

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!?!


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## -Peter (Feb 25, 2012)

True sea snakes all have live young. Sea kraits lay their eggs on land. Sea snakes cant be kept in Australia.


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## PMyers (Feb 25, 2012)

waruikazi said:


> The collection permits don't really work the way you suggest either.



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.



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.



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.


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## eipper (Feb 25, 2012)

Marine reptiles are specifically excluded from being kept in qld


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## PMyers (Feb 25, 2012)

eipper said:


> Marine reptiles are specifically excluded from being kept in qld



That's what I thought. I promised myself I was going to chase up a definitive answer from DERM at the time, then never got around to it.


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## eipper (Feb 26, 2012)

There might now actually be a loop hole as the regs stated hydrophidae and laticaudiae. Both of these families have been synonmised with elapidae now. Mind you you still need to be able to source them and set up appropriate housing... This may be harder than the potential red tape involved


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## PMyers (Feb 26, 2012)

eipper said:


> There might now actually be a loop hole as the regs stated hydrophidae and laticaudiae. Both of these families have been synonmised with elapidae now. Mind you you still need to be able to source them and set up appropriate housing... This may be harder than the potential red tape involved



Housing would be a massive issue, yes. Certainly well out of the reach of the average keeper... with average financial resources.


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## JUNGLE-JAK (Feb 26, 2012)

notice it was found near weipa, im suprised the crocs didnt find it first, my dad lives there and he recons its snake haven.


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