unhappy redtail

Question
We have a three year old red tail and he's always been easy enough to handle. About a month ago we added another smaller of the same breed in the same tank. They were together for about two weeks (while a friend moved) and then separated again. Our snake didn't seem to be unhappy at all while they were together although any time they were out he would get very aggressive. Now that he's back on his own, however, he is even more aggressive. He snaps at he tank anytime anyone walks by and is in a constant S coil.

For about a week after the snakes were separated, we had a water filter (for a fish tank near by) on a table near the snake tank. Unsure whether the vibrations were upsetting him the filter was taken away.

His mood has not improved at all and his living condition is exactly as it was before. He still eats as he did, a large rat every two weeks but I'm not happy with his mood.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

Answer
The cause could be anything at all. it may just be the change of having a female in his environment for a while. he probably just needs some time to settle down after whatever it was annoyed him in the first place.

Obviously, with an aggressive snake this large you need to be really careful around him. the first and easiest method to try and calm him down is to cover the glass front of the tank with some fabric or something, so that he cant see anyone walking past and just leave him alone for a while, maybe about a month. during this time only go into or near his tank to clean, feed or top up his water.

If the above doesn't work you could try leaving it longer, or you may have to use a different approach to calm him down. there really are only two potential methods that i can think of that are possible with a snake of this size.

1) leave an item of your clothing - (preferably an old one and one that has been worn recently and not washed) inside your snake's vivarium for a few nights. this lets the snake get used to your scent and stop seeing it as a threat, hopefully allowing you get near to him and possibly pick him up. This method tends only to work on new snakes that are aggressive, but it's worth a try anyway.

2) You can get try ahold of a snake hook if its possible, and attempt to take him out using that first. This keeps you at a relative safe distance and usually, whilst on a snake hook a snake will calm down. try just getting him out with the snake hook at first just to get him used to being handled again. Never trust an aggressive snake even when they're calm, but after a few weeks of doing this, if you feel confident that his behavior has improved, slowly and gently lift him off the hook and into your hands. if this fails

You could also try to combine the two to see if the two methods together have an effect.

I hope this helps,

Andy