Pink Lipped Giant African Land Snails (Lissachatina immaculata panthera)

Look inside the mouth of the shell. In this animal the columella, the twisted pillar you can see down the opening, is pink. In the ordinary giant African land snail it is white or faintly blue. That one character is how a keeper separates the two, and it beats shell colour, banding and shape, all of which vary too much to rely on.

A different species, not a colour form

This is Lissachatina immaculata, described by Lamarck in 1822, and it stands as its own species rather than a variant of the common giant African land snail. Pink-lipped Agate Snail is a formal common name rather than a shop invention, and you will also meet it as the Giant Blonde Snail, or as an Immac among keepers.

The 'Panthera' has a history worth knowing. Achatina panthera was described by Férussac in 1832 as a species in its own right and has since been sunk as a junior synonym of immaculata. It is therefore not a subspecies and not a recognised variety, but a defunct nineteenth-century name the hobby carried on using as a line label, which is why we set it in quotes. Where sellers apply it consistently is to animals with a somewhat more slender shell, though nobody publishes a description precise enough to hold anyone to.

Two more things separate it by eye once you know to look. The shell surface is coarser than fulica, carrying fine axial threads interrupted by shallow spiral grooves, and the whole shell tends to sit shorter and rounder in profile. Adults commonly reach 8 to 12cm, and juveniles usually change hands at around 3cm.

Like its better-known relative it is an East African animal by origin, and both species have been carried far beyond that range by human traffic, which is the reason they turn up on invasive species registers in warm countries.

Care

Identical to the more familiar species, and rather than repeat it here, the page for the common species carries the full account: temperature, heating in a British home, substrate depth, diet, the calcium requirement, and where you stand legally on eggs and escapes. All of it applies unchanged to this species.

The one point worth restating, because it is the one that costs people a good animal, is calcium. Shell is laid down for the whole of a snail's life, so cuttlebone belongs in the tank permanently rather than as an occasional treat, and a shortage during growth leaves thin, pitted shell that cannot be repaired afterwards.

If you are buying this alongside fulica, house them separately. They will not harm one another, but juveniles of the two are easily muddled and the pink columella only becomes obvious with a bit of size, so keeping them apart saves an argument with yourself later.

Who it suits

Anyone who wants a giant land snail with something to distinguish it. Care is no harder than the common species, the pink lip is genuinely attractive at adult size, and it is uncommon enough in Britain that most keepers have never handled one.

Bred here in the UK. Our other options are the golden-shelled Rodatzi form and the far smaller Unicorn Snail, and everything beyond those sits with the other invertebrates.

Each snail travels bedded in moistened moss, closed into a vented tub, packed inside an outer carton with doubled walls. We send between Monday and Thursday only, which keeps orders away from a weekend in the network. Delivery is tracked next-day before 1pm and live arrival is guaranteed.