egg I.D help please :-)

[zoologistjo]

Hello,

I've been given a GALS egg to hatch, with very little information about it.

I understand egg I.D is very difficult but thought it worth a shot.

It's nearly 2cm in length and a pale yellow in colour.
I have no information about the snail that produced it other than large and brown with a pointed shell.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

I'm new to keeping any sort of snail.... I currently have the egg in moist coconut fiber substrate, with a thin layer covering the egg and about an inch of substrate depth below.
It's in a room which temp is between 20-25'c.

Thanks you :-D

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[snailbutler]

I'm no expert but I think the egg is too big to be either achatina fulica or achatina achatina. Just from browsing the species information pages, I'd say it could be archachatina marginata. Either way, I hope it hatches successfully.

[zoologistjo]

thanks very much, I've been browsing for hours and all I could come up with is megalobulimus oblongus........but the eggs were white, not yellow like this one.
Yes, fingers crossed it'll hatch :-D

[coyote]

Hi zoologistjo, welcome to the forum. You can read more about marginata breeding and egg-hatching here (scroll down):
www.petsnails.co.uk/species/archachatina-marginata.html#start

[zoologistjo]

hello,
Thank you for the link, the breeding section describes the egg I have perfectly and gives me a better idea of how I should be incubating it.
thank you so much!
fingers crossed for a successful hatching now :-D

[SnailsPace]

Eggs can vary in colour, you even get bright green ones!

[coyote]

Let us know how your egg fares, and feel free to ask any further questions you might have, at any time.

[SnailsPace]

I don't think anyone would give a megalobulimus away, they are too rare and therefore expensive, you can expect to pay about £35 for a mega, but if it is please introduce to your friend lol!

[heydihoo]

megalobulimus eggs are usually almost always a clear white colour you say the description of the snail had a pointed shell? if i has a pointed shell it would be an achatina species but the egg would not be 2cm it would be 2mm also if it is a archachatina egg they do not do well with being moved or turned

[zoologistjo]

Thanks for all the advise!
I've put a thermometer on top of the substrate now and it's averaging at 17'c in moist coconut fibre, but the actual room they are in is much warmer than this....not sure if this is too cool, all the text I've read varies with the ideal temp for hatching between species , I've also now made the layer on top of it an inch deep after reading this on the breeding section for marginata.

I've not moved it much, I only took it out to take a pic for this forum.

It wasn't exactly 'given' away :os
The person who gave it to me, works for a freight company, when moving crates from packaging to be loaded and delivered to their destination some eggs rolled out and smashed, one of the guys carrying it caught one, looked through the gaps and saw some GALS and some more broken eggs inside, so he popped it in his top pocket (feeling he had rescued that one) and after his shift brought it round to me, knowing I'm just finishing a zoology degree and quite interested in all exotics. He couldn't really see in the crate too well, it was dark and only small gaps....hence the brief description. He said the adults were about the circumference of his hand span, so about 20cm?? brown with a pointy shell, but is all very ify information for an I.D.

Just hoping 'Gary' hatches! (egg has now been named by my youngest)
Getting a little egg hatching shelf now, have numerous diapherodes gigantea stick insect eggs from my daughters big female also. My friends have started teasing me about becoming a creepy bug lady! Also have some absolutely adorable little velvet worms (how anyone could say they're not the cutest animal alive I'll never know) which were my Christmas present this year :-D
If 'Gary' doesn't hatch, definitely think we'll be getting some snails to join our growing family! After browsing the Internet found some really fascinating species, never knew how interesting snails could be :-D

[zoologistjo]

Also it's def 2cm, not 2mm....the size is what made me investigate as when had a call saying a gals egg was on it's way round wasn't expecting it to be so big!

[coyote]

May 5, 2011 11:51:47 GMT zoologistjo said:

My friends have started teasing me about becoming a creepy bug lady!

LOL, I know someone on a different forum who's studying invertebrates and her username is Weird Bug Lady. ;D

[snailbutler]

It sounds like Gary has led quite an exciting life already. If he manages to hatch, you should publish his biography and auction off the film rights.
I suppose if the person who gave you the egg knew where the crate came from it may help to confirm the species. One wonders what became of Gary's globe-trotting parents.