Vally, one of the things that I love about this forum is wide range of ideas that are expressed. The typical response concerning snakes is probably like Highflyer (a good snake is a dead snake) which I personally agree with. But you obviously have a more open mind viewpoint which is very cool. Wish that I more flex in my attitude about snakes.

Moving an 8 foot snake is probably out the question with the possibility of getting a nasty bite from a non-poisonous snake. So what about just accepting that the price of having this snake around is the cost of a few fish. Some of us encourage wood ducks to nest around our ponds at the expense of some fish. Is this really much different? Just suggesting a different viewpoint.

Not saying this the course of action I would take, in fact I would work very hard to make it a good snake.

It's another day in paradise