The Hot Pepper

Saltwater? Whatcha got?

No water... LOL
Large Cornsnake!!!
Unfortunately, he passed after many years...

I'm sorry. What kind? I bred corns for years. Did you get a new one?

It was a snow corn... He was really neat looking. When we bought him, he was about 6" long and my son was about 12yo. My son was about 27 when the snake died... :-(
But we decided to not replace him for now...

15 years is a heck of a life for a corn! They don't last nearly as long as some other species, like ball pythons, which can exceed 40 years! I loved playing with double recessives like snows (homozygous for both amelanistic and anerythristic). The first snake I ever bred was actually a snow corn x a het amel and I was hoping for a few amels. Unfortunately all I got was hets out of the deal.

Yeah, he lasted a long time. He loved his big tank and lots of rats.... LOL
I was working on getting my venomous reptile license here in the State of Florida, but work and family got in the way... It takes a long time to get 1000 hours of logged time, when I could only do it one day a week. I volunteered at Gatorland for several months working with herps, but I had to quit and I wasn't close to getting my 1000 hours. :-(

Both here and Ohio (where I used to live) you don't need a license to work with or keep hots. They sold hots at the Pittsburgh reptile expos. You could pick up most common species dirt cheap too. CBB WDB hatchlings rarely went for more than $15-25, monocled cobras were almost always under a bill. I saw rhino and gaboon vipers going for $75-125 most of the time. Although I fully support keeping hots, they are not something to go into lightly.

Most people that I meet who want to get into hots I tell them to get an amazon tree boa and every time that they get bit to write down, "This could have cost me a limb or my life".

Amen!!!!
Amazon Tree Boas are beautiful reptiles, but very aggressive!
When I was a teenager (40+ years ago), I used to supply Eastern Diamondbacks for a guy named Ross Allen who worked at Silver Springs in Ocala, FL... {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Allen_(herpetologist)}
When I went to college, I lost contact with him, then he passed away in 1981... Florida then passed their license requirement and I didn't have any proof of my previous hours. It...

It was in the early 2000's when I volunteered at Gatorland. I would clean about 20 to 30 cages a day, plus all of the none hot cages. It was a rush just walking into the room with that many hots. But I don't want to keep them anymore, just be able to capture for the local venom collectors...

ATB are probably one of my all time favorite herps to keep. It is all about the challenge and respect. On the note of corns, the one thing I miss most are the little worm sized hatchlings with an attitude. When they sit there in their tubs, full strike position with their little tails rattling on the bottom of the tub. Too freakin' cute!

Did you get to play with any crocodillians or varanids at Gatorland?

Oh yeah... I enjoyed everything about that job... I got to wrestle a few gators, but I won't mess with crocs... They were just too aggressive. Took all the fun out of it. We would do school activities and shows. Plus I would get to go into the bears pen to clean it out. We had a huge python and several huge snapping turtles... LOL
I did lose my concentration one day and got bit by a rather large python. :-( The bite almost covered my whole hand.. That was NOT cool...

We did a lot of repairs to the cages and pens when we weren't feeding. There was a petting zoo that was always in need of cleaning, as was the bird cages...
They actually have a good size gator farm where they raised them from eggs. So once in a while we would go into the large gator pond and collect eggs, then put them in the incubator. We had to sort the gators into different pens by size and we kept the white gators separate.

Every couple of years, I will get an alligator hunting license and harvest a couple of gators for the skin and meat. That is how I got interested in airboats...

What kind of python? I'm assuming a burm, retic or afrock judging by the size you described. With most non-venomous, the worst part about getting bit is waiting to get bit. I sent my mom (who haaaaaates snakes) a video/pics of me getting bit by a few of my ATBs, rosy boas, various colubrids, a 7ft dumeril and a 9ft coastal carpet and laughing. She was not impressed. Up until you get into the 8-10ft plus range, most bites are laughable, with the exception of a few species (C. caninus for e...

As much as I love reptiles, I would love to hunt a big ole ornery gator. Mmm, mmm!

Pretty much all my herping is just photo ops. Go out for a nice hike, catch a few snakes and take a few pics and let them go on their way. I can't wait for spring to get here so I can go find some bullsnakes, rubber boas, western hognose and prairie rattlesnakes. I envy yall down in Florida. Yall are overrun with cool herps down that way!

From what I can remember, it was a reticulated python... It was coiled up in his pen and was always calm, but no one told me he had just been fed and I reached in to get his water bowl to clean it. Bam! it was over in less than a second. I bleed like a stuck pig!!! LOL
He was coiled up and I don't remember how long he was, but we had one that was about fifteen feet. Took several people to go in his cage.

Gator hunting is fun, just not cheap... License I think is about $300 - $400... Plus gaff, bangstick, hooks, harpoons..... Boat...
Good eating though... LOL