Pheidologeton spec (possibly affinis)

[miszt]

My new colony arrived! Safe and well!

Queen is looking healthy, around 100-150 workers, 4 small majors and one medium major



I'll post some pics this evening, for now I'm leaving them to rest after their 3 day journey thru wind swept europe lol

I'm completly rethinking my approach to keeping these ants, I was initially going to keep them in a ytong, however I think a farm will be better.

According to 'the Ants', these ants eat 50-60% fruit, nuts and seeds, so I will be feeding them a selection of these, high protien ones (eg pinapple/peach/prune) and various insects. I'm going to try them with a little honey aswell, although I'm not expecting them to take this.

Nest will be kept at a steady 28C, with 60%+ humidity, air temp will vary from 30-35C from a lamp. (Once I have finished setting up there vivarium, which will be based on Northern Australian Rainforest )

[SteveUK28]

dude u really could teach this stuff... ur skills are far too wasted..
Glad to hear they all arrived ok tho.. and im def looking forward to some pics.. Did they come in a nest or TT?
Steve

[Necturus]

Carefull with the temperature mate. id suggest staying around 26°C. Otherwise you might boil em. Dont forget they live below the ground, where the temperature is a lot lower then on the surface. also, they are usually found in the shadows below trees.
Once they settled down, give try and give them a warmer spot in the ytong, and see how they like it. always best to let em choose:)
Greetings,
Necturus

[miszt]

True necturus, but remeber these ants come from tropical australia and south asia, where tempretures easily hit 40-50C+ at mid day...but to be safe I'm going to drop them down to 26C, untill i can get confirmation about the ground temp for them, i'm sure I can find sum info on google

Once they get there ytong I will certainly setup a few areas they can choose from

Also Antstore & Kalytta both suggest a ground temp of 28C

[JimmyVe]

Nice miszt, good luck with these ants, i hope it works out well. Sure post some pics. Can't wait.




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[Ashton McStansfieldio]

Hey Miszt, glad ur colony turned up safe and well:) Can`t wait to see your setup interested to see how you do with the fruits too.

Best of luck mate.

[miszt]

a few pics...waiting till they've moved into their new home b4 i disturb them again

Setup is, 30x20x6 Farm, with a Ytong about the same size inside, heated with a 12w Heat Mat on a Thermostat, set to 26C inside the nest

[JimmyVe]

Nice setup miszt, i hope they like it.




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[miszt]

bah! my heating ( in my house ) switched off last night, now the glass inside my nest is covered in huge drops of water! and some drowned ants that have got stuck hopefully the water will drip down and be absorbed back into the ytong soon!!


heres a few more pics...

[darradar]

ooooh that's a shame, hope they become ok....

[miszt]

quiet a few where drowning, so i've had to do a radical shift, fortunetly not many workers where in the ytong, so i've removed it and am cooking up sum loam/sand mix instead, i love these ants to much to risk sacrificing them just so i can see inside the nest! they make very large chambers anyway, so i will be able to see in eventually....fingers crossed that not to many workers have died to support the colony will give them extra food, crushed and high protien/carbo/mins/vits content over the next few days to make sure they can rebuild there workers, i think maybe 30 workers have died coz of the damn condensation...I cant wait to move out of this crappy flat!!! only a couple of days to go tho

[JimmyVe]

Very nice miszt (i mean the pictures) sorry to hear about the dead workers, i hope the colony will survive it. They sure look healthy so i don't think it would be a problem.
Do you also have pictures of the setup ?




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[miszt]

Yeah i will do once I have put it all back together, just letting the substrate cool down, then i'll put it back together

[miszt]

They are happily digging out their new nest now there are 6 seperate entrances already, one of them has been made into a wide entrance, that wil be for the queen and majors, the rest are very small, jus for workers, there will be more larger ones as the colony grows...heres some pics...

12w heat mat & thermo stat, 30x20x6cm farm, filled with corse sand, loam and a little peat, pebbles and aggregate on the base

Tempreture is stablized at 26-27C in the sand, also there is a heating lamp which will keep the temp around 24-26 at night (not in the pic)


You can see 3 things coming out of the side of the tank, this is a thermometer probe for the sand temp, thermostat prob for the air temp and a water tube

You are probly wondering why there is no foraging basin attached, well, this setup will be going into a very large tropical tank once I move house (this weekend), I want to create a space so that they can do there natrual marching columns


I am wondering, as I have yet to see a succesful colony of Pheidologeton raised in a ytong, from the reports i've read, if having the sand nest will be better for them anyways i've seen quiet a few sucessful colonies in sand nests tho

(test tube on top is my solonipsis queen )

[SteveUK28]

very nice john... and dude i have exactly the same thermometer as you have on top of the tank.. what do u use that 1 for.. n please dont say tellin the tempreture