Snails Galore!

Achatinae 

Ghana Tiger Snail    

"Tigers"                                                              

(Achatina achatina)

The largest of all the snails, this snail is marked out by it characteristic black stripes and its orange shell. It can grow up to 30cm in the wild but in captivity more likely to grow up to 15 to 20cm.it is in decline at the moment because it is considered a delicacy by the people of Ghana. it can lay up to 300 eggs per clutch. it can take up to 3 years for Ghana Tiger Snails to sexually mature. It can live up to 10 years, but more often than not it usually lives to 5-7.

ID your snail:  Has a pointed apex, very young Snails may have a more blunted apex, but the shell pattern is usually very different to young marginata. If not sure request a picture of the parent Snails if possible. Columella is usually pink, may also be reddish or purple.

East African Land Snail

"Fulis"

(Lissachatina fulica)

The most common of GALS (giant African land snails), This snail is marked out by distinctive white stripes against the dark brown shell. It can grow up to 20cm in the wild but more likely to grow to 15cm captive. It can lay up to 500 eggs. It usually takes up to 11 months for Lissachatina Fulica to sexually mature. You can usually tell within 6 months when it is fully grown. You need to keep Lissachatina Fulica dryer than most other snails as they are more sensetive to damp. These snails can live up to 10 years but usually 5-7.

 ID your snail: always has a pointed apex. White, blueish, or grey columella. Body colour and shell pattern/shape are all variable.

Variants: Achatina fulica hamillei (and Achatina fulica hamillei f. rodatzi) -
Same as above, the hamillei form will appear to be the same as Achatina fulica, but will have come from rodatzi parents, or confirmed hamillei parents (originally from rodatzi.)
The rodatzi form is yellow, and will have very little or no brown streaks and markings.

Pink Lipped Agate Snail

"Immacs"

(Achatina immaculata)

A very polymorphic land snail, Achatina Immaculata are most commonly found with a very roughly texured shell and stripes, as shown in the picture above. It can grow up to aroun 15cm when it reaches adulthood at around 2 years old. This is also about the time when it sexually matures. These snails can live up to 10 years, like most other snails, but usually 5-7. another thing to mention is the fact that it has at least 5 other subspecies, or SP.

ID your snail: Roughly texured shell, smooth neoponic whorls, bulgy 1st whorl with a reddy-brown columella. not a particularly pointed apex, but pointy enough to be classed as Achatina.

Variants: Panthera, Panthera brown form, Panthera blue form,     

 Panthera "brown form"  Panthera "blue form"

Panthera small form, var. "Two Tone", Panthera ID: long and  slender, lots of stripes, for brown and blue form, exactly the same just brown for brown form and blue for blue form.

 Immaculata var. "two tone"

Archachatinae

Giant Gold Coast Snail

(Archachatina degneri)

Extract from Petsnails.co.uk

Originally described as follows from one specimen (not Bequaert):  

"Shell solid, subovate, imperforate and somewhat shiny. Color: first three and a half whorls uniformly light brownish-yellow; following two whorls barred with irregular reddish-brown axial streaks which overlie the light brownish-yellow ground color; the reddish-brown color bars continue to the aperture, but the ground color changes from brownish-yellow to a decided light greenish-brown. On the last two whorls there appear to be upon close inspection a series of faint grayish, very fine zigzag lines, arranged more or less axially. Entire interior area of aperture, columella and parietal callus a deep vinaceous-red (Ridgway's pomegranate purple); extreme inner edge of outerlip and outer margin of parietal greyish purple. Whorls 7, convex, the last two impressed somewhat below the suture. Spire somewhat extended, produced at an angle of 60°. Body whorl about 77% of the total shell. Aperture rounded-ovate, about 65% of length of the shell, widest below the middle. Palatal lip flaring, bell-like, slightly thickened. Columella rather wide and twisted within, nearly straight and rather abruptly and broadly truncate. Sculpture: first one and a half whorls minutely rugose, gradually merging into the distinct, but very fine, decussate sculpture of the next three and a half whorls; on the remaining whorls the sculpture becomes irregular and the beading is only very faintly indicated; body-whorl roughened somewhat by coarse growth-lines."

More about the inside of the lip (Bequaert):

"In the holotype, the columella, parietal wall, inner margin of outer lip (except for the narrow edge) and the entire inside of the aperture to far back in the shell are a gorgeous deep vinaceous-red. This is true also for a few shells I have collected in the Gold Coast. More often, however, the inside is reddish, in varying shades from orange-red to violaceous only near the outer-lip over a width of an inch or less. All transitions may be observed between these two extremes."

The data is limited, but the difference between degneri and marginata is....

"...These shells could only have been degneri, even though the species is known to occur in Gaboon, so that the locality should be regarded as erroneous. A. marginata which exists in Gaboon, is ruled out, first because Shuttleworth uses it for comparison; secondly because he mentions no difference in color from his polyphyrostoma, so that his shells must have been extensively purplish inside the aperture, a character not found in any of the several forms of marginata with which I am acquainted..."

Banana Rasp Snail

"Margie"

Archachatina Marginata

This is another species that has a diverse web of subspecies. it is very hard to identify, as the shell pattern is not reliable at all. It must be noted that  one of the only ways to identify it is the columella. In the variant Marginata, the columella is bluey-grey. However, in the variant Ovum*, the columella is a very noticable apricot colour. these snails lay about 50 to 100 eggs and they hatch on an average of 2 weeks. as of most snails, the Marginata lives about 5 to 7 years.

ID your snail: (including variants) - Always has a blunt apex, rough body texture, and a raised "V" on its tail.
Archachatina marginata var. ovum - often has a more rounded shell than suturalis. Columella is apricot orange.
Archachatina marginata var. suturalis - usually more slender than var. ovum, often has a reddish apex. Pink, purple or reddish columella.

 Marginata var. Ovum   Marginata var. Sutralis