corydoras: Yet another basin setup for Formica fusca ;-) (19. Feb 2008 15:15)

My Formica fusca queen is in hibernation until March, but i have already prepared her new home. Any suggestions of how i could improve it are welcome, because this is my first formicarium.

Here it is:

Phasmid: (19. Feb 2008 16:35)

Maybe you could have an air plant or a small cactus growing in a bottle cap in a corner to add some life so the setup. A catus or an air plant requier next to no care at all. Also some scale insects and aphids love cacti and would be a natural source of honeydew for your ants :idea: .

mzfckr: (19. Feb 2008 16:40)

maybe you can put some cotton woll in bird feeder.its for anti-drowning

corydoras: (19. Feb 2008 16:55)

Maybe you could have an air plant or a small cactus growing in a bottle cap in a corner to add some life so the setup. A catus or an air plant requier next to no care at all. Also some scale insects and aphids love cacti and would be a natural source of honeydew for your ants :idea: .

I already thought about adding an plant, but i couldnt find anything that would fit into this theme of a "Temperate-coniferous-forest".
Does a cactus produce honeydraw by itself or is it only possible in combination with scale insects?

maybe you can put some cotton woll in bird feeder.its for anti-drowning

Thanks for the hint, i will do so! :D

JimmyVe: (19. Feb 2008 19:11)

Looks very nice Corydoras, i think your ants are going to love it. ;)

Phasmid: (19. Feb 2008 19:46)

Does a cactus produce honeydraw by itself or is it only possible in combination with scale insects
You my need to find some scale insects or aphids but with me they just turn up eventualy.

If a small cactus doesn't look very good in your setup then you could get a wiry looking airplant that looks like grass (you can get these from antstore or a local gardencentre). This will be better than real grass because is doesn't fill up your tank in a month and needs minimal care.

corydoras: (19. Feb 2008 22:36)

Thanks for the positive feedback Jimmy!
:D

This one looks very nice, i think it would fit into my setup. The description says that this plant wont die, no matter what you do to it. You can toss boiling water over it (which would kill any other plant), and it is able to survive hundreds of years without water. Very impressive plant. :!:

Phasmid: (21. Feb 2008 20:11)

I just got that same plant from antstore. I'ts strange because it looked like it had been dead for a long time but when I poured water on it it exploded into life. Amazing thing.

Messorus: (21. Feb 2008 20:54)

Nice set-- up corydoras, but I´m not really sure if will queen accept this set- up very well, I think that she will a bit scary from much space. Maybe you could keep a colony from the queen and than move them to this lovely set- up :wink: But that´s just my own opinion

The plant, the Rose of Jericho is typical plant in the Izrael and Arabian countries, better to grow it in dry desert formicariums/terariums...
Like Phamids said, when you will give water to it, it will ,,start living". It´s very interesting to watch this nature proces

corydoras: (21. Feb 2008 21:33)

Hello Messorus,

i will put her into the Formicarium together with the test tube she already lives in, so there should be no problem.