Bring a live snake home

PEOPLE who want to literally feel the luck that the water snake will bring in 2013 may try to bring home something more than the usual prosperity frog or a waving cat figurine.

Along Magallanes Street in Cebu City, Cebu Daily News spotted a group crowding around 62-year-old vendor Fred Librado who is selling water snakes.

Depending on its size, a water snake is priced from P75 to P100.

He said he bought the water snakes from a pet shop in Talisay City.

The snakes are sourced from a Manila-based supplier.

He said that he had been selling water snakes and pet fish along Magallanes street since he was still in his teens. But it was only this year when water snakes became saleable.

He said he already sold at least 200 water snakes since the year started. Most of his buyers were Chinese.

The water snakes he is selling measures about 10-12 inches long which he feed with small rainbow fish.

A water snake has a dark blue or black body with streaks of white and yellow.

He said the water snake species he seels is not dangerous at is among the non-venomous species.