Snake family · File & wart snakes
Acrochordidae
Fully aquatic snakes with baggy, file-rough skin.
About the Acrochordidae family
File snakes are entirely aquatic, non-venomous snakes with loose, sagging skin covered in tiny rough scales that help them grip slippery fish. They are almost helpless on land and give birth to live young in the water.
- Where they live
- Coastal and fresh waters of South and Southeast Asia and northern Australia.
- How to recognize one
- Loose, baggy, sandpapery skin and a flabby body; unmistakable in the water.
- Danger to people
- Harmless. No venom.
Species (3)
Genera in the Acrochordidae family
1 genera with two or more species. Open one to read about the group and browse all its snakes.
Keep learning
- What Is a Snake? Anatomy and the BasicsA clear overview of what makes a snake a snake: limbless body plan, anatomy, evolution from lizards, species diversity, and why they are ectothermic.
- How Snakes Move, Hunt, and EatHow snakes move without legs, hunt as ambushers or active foragers, kill by constriction or venom, and swallow prey wider than their head.
- What Do Snakes Eat?All snakes are carnivores. Learn what snakes eat, how diet changes with size and age, how often they feed, and how they hunt and swallow prey.
- Venomous vs Nonvenomous: How to Tell the DifferenceThe folk rules for telling venomous snakes apart, where each one fails, and why location-based identification beats guessing by sight.