This page tells you about my experience with the breeding of Achatina achatina.I'm not
an expert,just somebody who was lucky enough to get 3 batches of eggs.
I haven't seen my Achatina's mate,so can't tell you how long it takes from mating
till egg laying.
The tank they are in is 50 x 37 x 37 cm,made out of plastic sheets.The lid is a plastic
sheet as well,ofcourse with air holes.This enclosed environment keeps the tank moist
and the temperature stays pretty high(24 degrees Celsius).
The soil is ordinary potting compost in a layer of 4 cm deep.I realize this is not
deep enough,but the results show that this is not always necessary.
The snails are being fed with a wide variety of food:apple,lettuce,carrot,
courgette,aubergine,ofcourse there is always plenty of cuttlefish
bone available.
When my snails starting to lay their eggs,they didn't move much for a few
days,just stayed out of their shell.
Then the snail started to dig a hole and laid its eggs.This takes a long time,about
4 hours for one of my Tigers.They laid about 100 eggs in one batch,but
ofcourse this is variable.
The eggs are about 8 mm in size,white or yellowish.
You can either leave them in the tank of the parents or put them i
n a seperate tank.I did both and they all hatched perfectly.
At a temperature of 24 degrees the eggs started hatching after 20
days.Another batch hatched after 23 days.The young snails will eat the
eggshells first and stay burrowed for up to a week.
The first few weeks you can leave them in with the parents,the shells are quite fragile
and handling them could cause damage.
When they are big enough,say 1 cm or half an inch shellsize,you can put them in a
tank of their own.The young snails need plenty of calcium ofcourse and must not dry
out.I feed them on cucumber and lettuce,but you can give them
the some food as the parents.
(c)2004-2005 by Arno Brosi Home