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This thread will be a bit like a wiki, as new points and ideas come up,i'll add them to the top of the thread :)
Food Sources:
Carbohydrates - Seeds - grasses and high-yeld but small seeding plants
Sugar - Honey Dew (aphids?), Honey, Sugar, Nectar - flowering plants?
Protien - Insects - obviously somthing that wont eat the ants or make to much mess
Water - this would have to be supplied by the owner, unless it was placed in the garden, but it wuld still not have access to the water table
Contamination
Ant waste - Ammonia, Nitrites.. this is not usually an issue, as biological systems will setup within a week or so to deal with these chemicals
Mold - ventilation
Parasites
Mites - some of these are good, and will clear up mess, some are not, also preditory mites could be introduced to control other inhabitants, but would they attack brood?
Humidity and Water
If a good biological filter can be setup, then a 'pond' could be used, with plants, to humidify and provide a good water supply
Heat
I'm not a fan of heat mats or rocks, i prefer using lamps, as they provide a light source aswell as heat, I usually use a 12w bulb hooked to a timer and a thermostat, which keeps temps around 26C depending on the size of the tank obviously, the tanks i have are quiet big and havnt yet gona over 26.5C, in summer that will change of course
To stabalize an eco system, contamination must be kept as close to nothing as possible, and food at a level that supports the ants, but does not destroy the eco system
Plants will absorb chemicals from ant waste
There would need to be a large enough space that will keep a balance between rotten bio-matter and clean space...
tbh, i dont htink this is possible, but maybe....it works in our gardens, so why not in a tank?
thoughts....
I think this is a good idea. I think space will be the biggest limiting factor, perhaps a dooming factor. It might certainly be attempted with acorn ants (Temnothorax nylanderi) and a really big basin.
Using another species, one could, if one has the inclination and the means, order a really BIG basin, say a custom 6x6x(y) meter basin and give it a try. I'm not joking here, it would certainly be a feather in someones cap.
If you can make the farm large enough it might work. ;)
I like this idea of a mini-eden project. I think to do it you'd need several ant keepers, like a communal project in a rented room/area/lab or something with enough equipment to keep everything in balance
Lol
I´m going to make self bio-shepre of ,,soil world" in one tank. I will put mites, mealworms, small insects, springtails as hunting food and Ponera ant queens like their biological predators... On the top of the tank will be just moos, humus and old flora material from forest.....
it wont´t work. ants are high-energy-meat-consuming-animals, and designing an ecosphere with such animals would be impossible even for universitys.
Yes, to sustain a colony in this way you would need a very large enclosure and an ant spec that produces very small colonies.
biosphere 2, a multi-millio-dollar-project, faild because of some ants....
,,Bio- shepre" is also common name for closed ecosystems.... and I´m really sure that it will work right. ,,Animals" od Acarina, Enchytraea and Collembola will be feeded on humus bacterias and so on. They will be eaten by predators- Ponera coarctata. These ants have 3.5mm(gyne) and 2.8- 3.1mm workers..... Their colonies coud be polygyn, with three queens one my very very experienced ant mate keeped around 150 workers at his Ponera colony, but this is real maximul. Colonies usualy have around 60 members... When I will keep them in tank 15 x 20 x 15cms, I think it will be OK :D
Your going to have this ecosystem in a 15x20x15cm basin? Thats way to small, the P.coarctata prey will not be able to breed quick enough to sustain even a few ants.