Achatina fulica, jet black body

[Kevin]

Does anyone here keep any Achatina fulica with a jet black body, or have a group with all the same jet black body colour? I would be interested in pictures if possible, please post here or pm me.

It would be to assist a museum with records they are compiling on Kenyan Achatinidae. I would also be interested in buying them if anyone has any for sale, the body colour would need to be jet black.

[evonnetracey]

i do have black fulcias heres a pic...

[Kevin]

thanks.

[Paul]

I'm not sure how it applies to Achatinidae, but I've noticed consistently that if you take Helix apsersa with jet black bodies from outside and keep them indoors, their colour changes to very light over a period of a few months.

Could it be that their colouration has something to do with temperature; so they produce more/less of something that helps with the cold?

All wild caught Achatina achatina (obviously excluding albinos) that I have seen have black (or nearly black) bodies but I've noticed brown to cream bodies in some captive-bred ones. I had some captive bred ones that had black bodies so it's not exactly consistent but different conditions may have variable effects.

[coyote]

When I keep my aspersa and Otala tanks outdoors (in indirect sunlight) in mild weather, the snails' bodies turn darker. In winter when it's too cold to put them outside, they get a lot paler. I suspect it's due to sunlight, because before I began putting the tanks outside the snails just got paler and paler indoors.