Snail Found In Lettuce - ID Help! (Pics Added)

[barnaclesnail]

I found a snail in a head of red leaf lettuce tonight, and could definitely use some help with identification - I'm stumped as to what species this little guy could be. At first I thought maybe a semi-slug. I've had a garlic snail and his body reminds me, at least color wise, of that species; it's a dark grey in color. But, the shell is conical, and in fact, is actually a very similar shape/size as that of a 3-4 week old a. fulica. He appears to be a brownish color, but it's difficult to tell because he may just be malnourished and ratty looking. I would swear he could be a fulica baby, except the lettuce from that store is locally grown, so he would have had to come from the southern NY or Long Island area. Not impossible, but very unlikely.

Anyway, it's been touch and go with him, because after IDK how many hours in the refrigerator he's somewhat worse for wear. And he also dented the shell from falling onto the counter, poor thing He seemed interested in strawberry and apple, but hasn't really eaten, although he was coming out for a bit if I held him. Just set up a new tank for him but he's now slightly retracted... not sure if he's just traumatized or on his last leg.

My camera's batteries picked tonight to die on me so I have no pics at the moment, but again, he's really VERY similar to a baby fulica, except for the body color. His eye stalks appeared slightly short to me, as well. Any help with ID'ing him would be very appreciated.

[barnaclesnail]

Was able to get a few pics but please excuse the quality. He's been retracted for a few hours and will try to get some body shots if I am able to coax him out.










Above: Mystery lettuce snail with a 3 week old albino body achatina fulica hamillei. The fuilica has a much rounder tip to the shell, so I would guess it was definitely not the same species...

[wolf]

Hi barnaclesnail,

at least the second picture reminds me of Succineidae. The exact form of the shell is more important than the colour of the body (which varies often to a greater extent). If it's a member of the family Succineidae, then it needs a rather high humidity. Succineidae stay rather small (shell hight at most up to 1 inch, most species smaller).
(By the way: I'm not sure about the subspecies "hamillei", but that's another problem.......... .)

Kind regards: wolf

[HazelSnail]

I agree with Wolf, he definitely looks very similar to Succineidae ambersnails. Very cute little snail!

[barnaclesnail]

I've just checked Google and yes, Wolf & HazelSnail, I think you're absolutely right! He looks almost identical to the darker bodied amber snails I'm seeing on an image search, and incidentally, one website even mentioned they are closely related to Vitrinidae, and I've been saying his body reminded me of my dear departed glass snail more so than any other species. So I think we have a definite match, there. Thank you very much! I was absolutely going crazy trying to ID this little guy. (and thank you also for the tip re: the humidity)

@ Wolf:

It's possible the hamillei baby is mixed with a. fulica jadatzi, since I have my adults in a mixed tank, although I've noticed with that species the coloration doesn't come out until about 5+ weeks. I do have a pic of a juvenile hamillei that was the baby in the pics grandmother/father snail, if you'd like to take a look. It's always possible his species was misidentified or mixed, because the seller I got the original one from was not exactly reputable.

[Cashell]

Interesting snails. I'm no ambersnail expert, but if I can recall, Succineidae typically don't grow very large, so I don't know if it'll get much larger than what it already is. If it does start to grow "larger than normal" then maybe it might actually be an African snail, but
After taking a close look at the shells in the picture, I'll go with labelling it as an ambersnail, as Wolf and HazelSnail believe.

[wolf]

Hi barnaclesnail,
perhaps we should begin a separate thread discussing Achatina fulica hamillei; I don't want to highjack this thread about cf. Succinea .
Kind regards: wolf

[astana]

I do believe that your mystery beauty is an ambersnail, like the others. They don't tend to grow very large at all (in fact, the size he is currently seems to be a max size for most ambersnails I've seen) so if he grows any larger, he may be something else entirely.

[robinwhiskers]

I can't help you identify him, but at least a snail lover found the snail in the cabbage, not a careless snail killer.

[etana]

Lovely little snail. How's he doing?

[barnaclesnail]

Another thanks for all the ID help, but unfortunately, the poor little guy passed away a few days after we found him I suspect he may have been an older snail, and with the trauma of being in the fridge for so many hours, he just never completely recovered, although it sort of broke my heart to see him trying so hard to come out of his shell when I'd hold him. I think (hope) he knew he was safe here for the short time we had him...

[HazelSnail]

Sorry to hear that, ambersnails do have a very short lifespan.

[astana]

Ah, very sorry to hear that. I had a similar experience with my Kanab ambersnail...