HELP! elephant trunk snake with skin blisters!

About two weeks ago I purchased a baby elephant trunk snake (acrochordus javanicus) from a local pet store. I had been looking to get one of these interesting snakes for over a year now so needless to say I was very excited when I found him (and so close to home too!).
I have done my research, or as much as I can since there doesn't seem to be too much info out there on this species. And I know that they need very good water quality (I have been keeping fish and reptiles for quite some time).
But here is my problem... today I upgraded his tank from a 10g to a 20Long (the snake is less than 12" in length) and when it came time to transport him in a clear plastic container I took a good look at him and discovered a sore/blister on his side. I know this species can be prone to getting them but everything I have read seems to say that if they get them they will become systemic and the snake will die from them. I dont know what to do as far as treating it so this doesnt happen. Can I treat the water with antibiotics like I would with fish?
Does anyone have experience with these or other wart snakes?
When he was in the 10gal tank I was changing about 1 gallon of water a day(there was about 5 gallons of water in the tank)... now that he is in the 20L with about 10gal of water I will change about 2 or 3 gallons a day... should I do a water change twice daily to help get rid of the skin infection ??
From my experience I will probably increase the temp. a couple degrees (its at 80 now) do water changes twice daily instead of only once a day and add some aquarium salt. I will also treat the water with antibiotics.
If anyone could give me advice to whether this is a good gameplan or not it would be greatly appreciated. Also if anyone knows of who might be able to give me more info....
Please, any reply is appreciated. Thank You. Wish me luck.
-Alyssa and Yig(the snake)

Originally Posted by FrogBeat

About two weeks ago I purchased a baby elephant trunk snake (acrochordus javanicus) from a local pet store. I had been looking to get one of these interesting snakes for over a year now so needless to say I was very excited when I found him (and so close to home too!).
I have done my research, or as much as I can since there doesn't seem to be too much info out there on this species. And I know that they need very good water quality (I have been keeping fish and reptiles for quite some time).
But here is my problem... today I upgraded his tank from a 10g to a 20Long (the snake is less than 12" in length) and when it came time to transport him in a clear plastic container I took a good look at him and discovered a sore/blister on his side. I know this species can be prone to getting them but everything I have read seems to say that if they get them they will become systemic and the snake will die from them. I dont know what to do as far as treating it so this doesnt happen. Can I treat the water with antibiotics like I would with fish?
Does anyone have experience with these or other wart snakes?
When he was in the 10gal tank I was changing about 1 gallon of water a day(there was about 5 gallons of water in the tank)... now that he is in the 20L with about 10gal of water I will change about 2 or 3 gallons a day... should I do a water change twice daily to help get rid of the skin infection ??
From my experience I will probably increase the temp. a couple degrees (its at 80 now) do water changes twice daily instead of only once a day and add some aquarium salt. I will also treat the water with antibiotics.
If anyone could give me advice to whether this is a good gameplan or not it would be greatly appreciated. Also if anyone knows of who might be able to give me more info....
Please, any reply is appreciated. Thank You. Wish me luck.
-Alyssa and Yig(the snake)

In normal snakes like boids, you would want to keep them on paper as well as dry and use triple antibiotic ointment.

Wet dirty housing often causes this stuff. The wet part is going to be a challenge.

These guys are totally aquatic Bobby.

What is the PH in the water? If I recall, and I am not sure, they prefer acidic water. You may also want stop changing so much water. It needs to cycle like a fish tank to establish bacteria. You can hook up a filter. It will need hiding places. I also think adding a couple table spoons of rocksalt may help, but again it has been many years since I kept any.

There may be some info on them at www.thereptileroom.org.

Good luck.

This morning I ran out to my LFS to test my aquarium water and to buy a couple things to hopefully cure my little snake of his skin blister and prevent anymore.
Thank you for your your advice.
to "varnyard": These snakes are a fully aquatic species so unfortunately the suggested treatment would not work for him.
to "Wilomn":The pH of the water is between 6.2 and 6.8, the pH of the tap water where I live is naturally acidic so I dont add any pH buffers to the tank.
There is a mini canister filter hooked up to the tank which is rated for up to 25 gal I believe. He also has plenty of places to hide (lots of live plants and a fake mangrove root decoration).
I believe you are right in that my mistake is probably that the tank hasnt cycled yet. The first few days the tank was set up there was low ammonia (0.25), no nitrate or nitrites, now there is no ammonia, low nitrate(>20) and no nitrite..
There is filter media and gravel in the tank from an established aquarium and I have been using Seachem Prime and Stability to treat the water with.
I bought rock salt today at the LFS and will start adding that to the water and I also bought tetracycline but I am going to wait on treating the tank with that since I'm not sure what dose to use and I am reluctant to medicate tanks any way w/o first trying more natural, and less stressful methods (i.e. rocksalt, sm. water changes)...
Thank you for your advice.
I will also check out that link and look for more info there. But for now I need to go to work.
Thank You again! If anyone else has anyother advice or info on this species please share!


-Alyssa and Yig

ago that I kept any of these guys. the ones I had were wild caught and in pretty bad shape when we got them. They all had skin blisters when we got them in. We treated them by using a 25% solution of chlorine and 75% water, then we daubbed it on the spots, dried the spots and sealed them with a solution I bought at the drug store for sealing cold sores. After about 5 application's it cleared up and we kept them for about 5 years or so. Also we had one animals that had some small red worm like parasites that were just under the sin that would erupt, it looked like a blister but was in fact a parasite, which we treated with parasite medication used for fish at 25% strength. As far as a water soluble solution one of the old stand by's we used when they displayed a problem was sulmet, which you would get at a feed store and it is used for chickens and other animals for diarrhea, we mixed it at 50% strength of what was listed for chickens. It is a broad spectrum antibiotic.

Hope some of that helps in some way.

Good Luck,

John cherry
Cherryville Farms

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HTH