Giant African Land Snails: Achatina Achatina
This snail, also called the ‘Tiger Snail’ and the ‘Giant Ghana Snail’ is the largest land snail in the world. Due to its vast size of an average 18-20cm shell length, this species is very popular for pets. A shell length for this snail can easily exceed 30cm, with an average diameter of about 9cm!
Interestingly, the Achatina Achatina species can be a lot harder to breed than other snails, and is believed to have a three-year breeding cycle!
During the first year of the Achatina Achatina snail’s life most of the growing will take place. For the next year or so these snails do not appear to grow at all, but they will continue to grow at a very slow rate after this.
The weight of one of these snails is around 600g, that’s over 21 ounces! They are best suited at a temperature of around 20 °C to 25 °C.
Achatina Achatina snails can live up to 10 years, although some of this time may be spent hibernating or aestivating. In captivity these snails generally live for around 5-7 years.
They have a pointed, conical-shaped shell, and some will have a spiral sculpture shape to it, (this is different from Achatina Fulica). When the snails are adults they will usually have no more than 7 or 8 whorls on their shell.
May 8, 2010
· 
Maddia (Admin) · 
2 Comments
Tags: Animals, giant african land snails, Giant Land Snails, Pets · Posted in: Giant African Land Snail Species
2 Responses
Hi, I cannot find anywhere any information on how big the tank needs to be for this particular breed. I am looking at getting a plastic fish tank, would 40cm across and 23 width be ok? I am struggling to find bigger without having to buy a really expensive glass tank. What is the smallest I can get for the breed and for one snail, and how much does it change for 2? Thanks!
Hi, I had three achatina achatina snails (Shelly, Felicity and Claire!) and the tank I used for them was 41.3 x 26 x29.8cm. Here’s a link to a post about their tank: http://www.madelinedyer.com/my-giant-african-land-snails%E2%80%99-new-home/
The tank I got was a fish tank of the ‘geo’ range, size ‘maxi’.
I would say that that sort of size you’ve looking to get should be the smallest that you should consider for one snail, however I’m not an expert. I kept three in the same tank of the above dimensions, however mine didn’t grow as big as expected.
An ideal size would be 12ins x 10ins x 12ins. Here’s another post about suitable homes for giant land snails: http://www.madelinedyer.com/how-to-make-a-suitable-home-for-your-giant-land-snail/
Remember the bigger the tank the better!
Hopefully this has helped you!