my ribbon snake

Question
QUESTION: hi. I have an adorable ribbon snake. she lives in a 30 gallon tank. I have that aspen bedding which she loves. Its funny when she sees a cricket, and goes under the bedding and gets it from under. Anyway I was wonder if I could make a portion of the tank water. A little less then half. I think it would look cooler then just having a big bowl. I have a low powered filter. and I bet the fish would last longer in that then in a small bowl. What do you think? Thank you.

ANSWER: Hi Beck,
  Wow what a great question. What you have to weigh here is form over function. When I first started keeping snakes, I built beautiful enclosures complete with fake (blue sand) rivers, little trees, etc. My snakes proceeded to defecate all over my pretty landscaping. Therefore, I favor form over function. With that in mind, I suggest that you consider how easy it will be to clean and if the fish will indeed stay alive longer. I suspect that cleaning will be difficult, but the fish will live longer. The choice is 100 % yours! You might consider a removable bowl mounted flush (via cardboard or plywood) with a pump in it. This would look nicer and will also be removable. Just a thought.

Let me know if I can be of further help.

Kevin L. Ogle

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QUESTION: Hi. I think I should give it a try. How would I do it? How would I seperate the water and the land without any water getting on the land? Also did you have any ribbon snakes?

Answer
Are you talking about my idea of the removable bowl or generally separating the water and land? If you just want to separated the two, I would cut a piece of plexiglass to the perfect dimensions (they can do this at Lowe's or Home Depot) and use silicone to seal it off.

I live in TN where ribbon snakes are native and it is against the law to keep any native snakes. I rescue between 2 and 10 per year from neighbors who used to kill them before I came along. I just cut one loose from some pond netting last week! One more saved and another family converted.