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Hey everyone I'm new to the site, hope you can help.
What sort of movement would you expect from this colony when its very small. My queen and three workers arrived 6 days ago, I put the test tube with a cover over it, in a basin with a y-tong connected and attached a small heat mat under the basin. I have left them alone as much as possible, only going near them to add/remove food. They have pure water, sugar water and I place tiny amounts of fruit and insects near the test tube entrance. As of yet i don't think they have even emerged from the tube yet alone eaten. I know these ants are slow to grow, but is this normal and how long can they survive without eating.
Thanks
Such a small colony rarely goes outdside and they need extreemly small amounts of food. Instead of sugar water i would use honey because it contains minerals and aminoacids not contained in sugarwater. I often feed them spiders and I always cut them into four pieces. I always pour boiled water over insects before feeding them to my ants. They might only be outside for 2 or 3 minutes per day. The queen can survive without eating for at least one year if she is well fed I dont know about workers and offspring but probably several weeks maybe even months. Ligniperda like heat so if you want them to move you should heat the nest to 25 to 27 degrees and keep the formicarium around 20 to 23 degrees. They might still not move for a year if there is enough water in the test tube water tank. The queen is not very good at climbing vertical surfaces so it should be possible for her to reach the connection to the nest without vertical surfaces. The y-tong needs to be moist, it takes quite a long time for moisture to work its way through the y-tong. Last year I bought a colony with 5 workers and some offspring and at the end of the season I had 35 ants with about 40 larvae. This year I now have arround 35 ants, 40 cocoons, 5 larvae and 50 eggs. I also had problems making them move into the new nest but then I put a heating spot on the Y-tong and 2 days later they had moved. Remember NEVER force ants to move the best you can do is to make the place you want them to move to a nice place.
Thanks for your response, I thought as much I just needed another opinion. I'm in no rush to move them, there's lots of water in the tube so i'm happy for them to stay there until numbers have increased, then i shall stop heating the basin and heat the y-tong. I'll give them honey water instead. Guess I'll leave them to it until the numbers hit around the 30 mark.
They took a small spider into the tube the other day so I'm v happy. The queen is laying too, I shall have an army in no time :grin:
http://i575.photobucket.com/albums/ss195/paulbuggins/DSCF1391.jpg
This is the expandable y-tong I made for them, sorry about pic quality. I made the first 2 sets of chamber walls thicker so i can add more plastic sheeting as the colony grows. Otherwise is would have been huge.
Despite a lovely warm test tube under cover my ants decided to move in to the y-tong with no heating in. The queen really struggled getting to the tube, her massive size prevented her from climbing any surface that was even slightly vertical. I had all sorts of bridges to help make the move easier, however the workers laying the trail for her to follow insisted on using the vertical side of the tank, so i assisted her to reduce as much stress as poss. I've moved the heat mat to sit over one of the two chambers that they have available at the moment (the one they moved to). Should i bother with the heat mat as they moved here initially without it being heated?
A quick pic of the queen and her 1st generation workers, she seems to have settled in well.
DSCF1471.JPG DSCF1474.JPG DSCF1478.JPG 1 month on and the queen is laying really well. I now have 2 pupae which are being guarded by the queen, (I haven't taken pics because i don't want to stress her) and as you can see lots of larvae and stacks more eggs. For a slow growing species, 1 month from egg to pupae seems quick, does anyone with experience on this species agree or is this about normal.
2 workers died (50% of the colony) a few days ago, I think it was due to the basin conditions. I think the sand was a bit fine as it actually stuck to their feet, they had difficulty walking on it so I've removed it all, its just a glass basin now. But on the plus, my first 2 new workers hatched today :lol: so I'm back to full strength. There must be at least 6/7 more due to hatch any day, the queen is still laying well as I'm providing lots of protein in the form of insects. Even if they don't touch them i remove and add more, just so they know there is an ample supply. 6 weeks and 5 days from egg to ant which isn't bad, i am supplying them with heat though.
The new workers that have hatched seem to be smaller than the original ants that came with the colony. I think that these are 1st generation workers and the original ants were in fact boosted. I'm not sure if this is why 2 of the original ants died, they spent almost three days straight in the basin and wouldn't return to the nest before eventually dying. Is it possible that the queen rejected them then attacked them as they appeared to be injured??????
Has anyone had any experience or know if this is possible?