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Here are some photos of the colony
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The dark leaves are bramble leaves and the fresher looking leaves are from a chilly plant, all the leaves were added last night immediately after the humidity was raised, the colony had cut alot of leaves and left the lying around the fungus but had not added much, today there was mainly scraps of leaf lying round the nest :D .
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Mat.
Check out this and this .
The blogs are translated from Dutch to English, but I think it's still a great help.
Guys
I think some people are being a bit unduly negative on this thread.
This guy doesn't sound like an idiot, so I don't know why people are treating him like one.
I've never kept Atta or Acromyrmex, and I appreciate that it's a challenge, but to me it seems as if matthew is thinking about what he is doing.
If the ants die, that's his problem. I think ants are great and have been keeping them since I was 8 years old. I've also killed a fair few colonies in my time. I don't think you can be cruel to ants in the same way that you can to a cat, dog or even fish.
On the other hand, he seems to want advice and that's partly what this forum is for.
Matthew, it might help if you post some pictures of your setup so people can get an idea of what you are doing.
btw. I don't think the fish are a completely ridiculous suggestion. Guppy's or something like that would probably do all right, though if the ants start dumping rubbish into the water, the nitrate, nitrite and ammonia levels will rocket.
If there is lots of leaf fragments lying around the nest it is often because the fungus isn't happy about these leaves so they won't be added to the garden. You need to experiment more with leaf types until you find one that is definitely being fed to the fungus otherwise it won't grow.
When I first received my leaf-cutters they did alot of dumping of fungus and brood for a few days, I thought there was something horribly wrong but it seems that they just needed a major clean out after being stuck in a box for a few days, they slould recover soon if they are kept right, just make sure you don't stress them.
If there is anyone else who wants to keep leaf-cutter ants but has limited experience then I strongly recomend you buy a young Acromyrmex colony (not lone queen) first and keep them for a couple of years before you attempt keeping Atta. I have thrown everything at my Acromyrmex (due to inexperience) but they still stand strong.
Hi, Ive got a question for you lot.
My Atta have a fungus garden set up the same as the one in the previous link with a Ferraro Roche box, I did not put any extra ventilation in the roof, the ants immediately blocked the entrance up almost completely leaving a hole just big enough for the larges workers to come and go, now I'm sure that there should be more air flow through the nest so I'm inclined to drill a few small air holes in the roof just to be on the safe side! If any one has had the same problem or similar could you let me know.
thanks.
Difficult this one, it always seems better if there is good ventilation, but in this case if the ants are trying to make the entrance smaller it may be because they want less air flow :? .
Do you have a substrate that can hold water to regulate the humidity, inside the box?
Hi, yes there is damp sand in the garden chamber, its looking like its 100% humidity. Ill post a pic in the morning.
We're still waiting for the picture ;)
Updates?