The effect of different incubation media of eggs of Archachatina marginata (Swainson, 1821) ovum in the University of Calabar, Nigeria

Hatchability of snail eggs in a cage is normally impaired as they are often unearthed by other snails looking for laying sites. This study evaluated the effects of different incubation media on egg hatchability of the giant African land snail (Archachatina marginata ovum) over a seven-week period. The experiment was conducted at the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Resources Management Teaching and Research Farm, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria. One hundred eggs were collected from 2 boxes stocked with adult snails. The eggs were incubated in 4 media comprising river sand, top soil, sawdust, mixture of river sand, top soil and saw dust. Seventy-seven eggs were randomly assigned to each medium having six replicates of three eggs each incubated in a box measuring top diameter 11. 5 cm, bottom diameter 11 cm and height 9.5 cm. Data were collected on daily temperature (morning, and evening), length of incubation and % hatchability and subjected to one way analysis of variance in a completely randomized design. Duncan's Multiple Range Test was used to separate the means. Mean daily temperature ranged from 25.86-26.03 which was not significantly (P>0.05) different between incubation media. Incubation period ranged from 22 -30 days and was significantly (P<0.05) different between media. Eggs incubated in sawdust hatched earlier (25 days), followed by those in a mixture of river sand and sawdust, topsoil (26 days), river sand (27 days), and top soil gave the longest incubation period (28 days). Percentage Egg hatchability differed (P<0.05) significantly between incubation media. Sawdust gave 66.67 % hatchability, 50% was recorded in a mixture containing river sand and top soil and sawdust, river sand has 41.67% while topsoil gave the least hatchability of 25 %. It was thus recommended that saw dust could be adopted as the ideal incubating medium for eggs of Archachatina marginata Saturalis.