Very recently several species found in the Ivory Coast, West Africa, has become available in captivity, these include Archachatina ventricosa, Archachatina purpurea, and snails that may be albino shelled Archachatina ventricosa, Archachatina purpurea, and snails that may be Archachatina rhodostoma.

Since very little is known about these species, and the fact that they all appear to look very similar, sometimes telling them apart can be very difficult, especially in the case of juvenile ventricosa, that look very similar to purpurea.

These snails first become available in numbers in late 2005/early 2006, before this some of these species may have never been kept in captivity before, and others, like Archachatina ventricosa, kept only very occasionally.

A single Archachatina ventricosa was rescued from Brixton Market, London in 2005, amongst Achatina achatina, which suggests that Archachatina ventricosa has a further distribution than just the Ivory Coast, with the likelihood of that particular shipment coming from either Ghana, Nigeria or Cameroon.

All three species are fairly small for Archachatina’s, especially in comparison to Archachatina marginata var. ovum and var. marginata, which can get to around 18-22cm shell length. Archachatina purpurea are known to only get to around 7-9cm as adult, and have a slightly more slender shell, which is less ventricose than Archachatina ventricosa, which get much larger than purpurea, around 10-12cm shell length. Both species have a fairly heavily textured shell. Archachatina rhodostoma are fairly small, and usually has a slender, plain shell. The shell of Archachatina rhodostoma is much less textured than that of Archachatina purpurea and Archachatina ventricosa.

Being West African in origin, these Archachatina’s prefer to be kept very warm and humid in captivity, temperatures of around 26-30c are preferred, and humidity should stay very high.

They are sometimes active throughout the day under ideal conditions. If the temperature, and/or humidity is too low they will be very inactive, and are likely to aestivate.

They don’t appear to be fussy, and will accept many fruits and vegetables, though getting them to accept cuttlefish may be difficult at first, it’s a good idea to grind cuttlefish over their food, and to spray them daily with water mixed with liquid calcium. Captive bred snails may accept cuttlefish much easier, though captive bred snails of these species are very rarely seen at the moment, as they are fairly new to captivity. They appear fairly easy to encourage to lay eggs though, so hopefully they will be much more commonly available in the near future. Like with the eggs of other Archachatina’s, hatching time is 3-8 weeks.

The housing can be a glass aquarium, or extra large plastic storage container, since all these species are relatively small, several adults can be kept in a 3ft x 1.5/2ft aquarium or in a extra large storage container.

A heatmat will need to be kept on the side of their housing, covering about 1/3 the back of the container. All three species can be kept together with no risk of hybridisation, though it would be difficult to tell the eggs apart as being from any one species, and even the young snails would be difficult to identify, so it is best to keep them separate by species, or by suspected species.

If breeding and egg laying does occur it would rule out the possibility of any two snails being kept together being that of different species.

A deep substrate of coir or soil is recommended for them, as all these species sometimes burrow, and are likely to lay their eggs several inches into the substrate. It is not yet clear whether the eggs are more likely to hatch when removed from the snails housing, personally I usually remove the eggs to be hatched in a separate container, but have heard of other keepers successfully hatching snails from eggs that were left in the adults housing.

(top) adult Archachatina ventricosa

(2nd) Archachatina c.f purpurea, possibly adult.

(3rd) comparison of shell texture of Archachatina ventricosa (left) and Archachatina c.f rhodostoma (right,) which has a much less textured shell.

(4th) adult Archachatina c.f rhodostoma

(5th) albino Ivory Coast Archachatina's, the larger snails possibly are albino shelled Archachatina ventricosa, the smaller snails, which have a pinkish apex are most likely Archachatina purpurea

(bottom) young Archachatina ventricosa, captive bred.