I'm thinking of getting a snake today. I've never had one before, so I'm looking for input on what kind would be best. I held a ball python and thought it was pretty cool since it's less likely to bite. Anyone have any suggestions? My main concern is aggression, as I really don't want to get bit.
If you want a pet go buy some goldfish or something you dope.
Corn snake or King Snake is the way to go. They are very mellow, pretty and don't get too huge. Do your research on how to care for them, particularly temps, health and feeding. My preferrence is to ctch local animals, keep them for a while(kind of like a "house guest"), get them nice and fat and happy, then release them in plenty of time for hibernation, but that's just me.
krait
Actually, it is not really a good idea to catch wild snakes, keep them in captivity, and then rerelease them into the wild. (As suggested by another poster) Potentially the snake could release a disease into the wild population which can be devastating for their population. This has happened to many of our native tortoise species here in the U.S. If you are inexperienced keeping snakes, captive bred are much better as wildcaught tend to be less healthy, harder to acclimate to captivity(especially if you are holding the snake a lot) and eat less readily. Ball pythons are great pets, but can sometimes be picky eaters, so be sure you get one that is eating mice or small rats and is captive bred. Most ball pythons at your local petstore are produced on big farms in Africa and imported or just wild caught, so ask to make sure. I would suggest looking for a corn snake, they are commonly bred in captivity and there are about a million different color mutations (albinos, etc.) Just my $0.02.