On arriving in the big shed a few days ago I was surprised to see that one of the "fish" was swimming around the perimeter at the surface really quickly.
And then I noticed that there were flashes of red from this "fish".
A closer look quickly showed that it was not a fish but a smallish red bellied black snake! I estimate this one to be about 800mm long.
Clearly it had visited the tank in search of food- The primary food for red bellied black snakes is frogs and other small reptiles.
The big shed is within 20 meters of the big dam and I have often watched red bellies hunting for prey around the edges of the water.
My first thought on seeing the snake was to quickly rescue it as I reckoned it was probably exhausted after who knows how long in the water. I have a small aquarium net taped to the end of a short piece of pipe so this was presented to the snake who immediately swam into it. I took the snake out to the bank of the dam and put it on the ground near the water .
I then realised :-
1. That I had missed a great photo opportunity and
2. That the snake might have eaten some of my fish!
I went back out to see if the snake was still where I had left it and it was- soaking up some warming sunshine. It didn't look like it had a fat belly so I doubt if any fish had been caught. It did look healthy and eventually moved off into longer grass to hide from me.
The fish were a bit skittish for a few days but eventually returned to normal and I although I have no way of counting them it looks as if I still have as many as I had before the visit.
I must come clean and admit that these pictures are not of the snake in this post- I prepared these images earlier. It is one of the snakes which live near the dam which I had photographed some years before.
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