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Hello people,
I have plans to keep leafcutters. Before I go to buy these species I have a couple of questions:
1. On the forum I found the following link. Click here On this site you can find a housing in which Acromyrmex are living. Is this housing also suitable for Atta’s?
2. There are two different species of leafcutters. Acromyrmex and Atta sexdens. What are the differences between these two species?
I have experiences with other ant species.
I hope someone can give me any advice. Thank you!
Greetings from Beffie
No, Atta colonies grow huge, millions of ants, some nests found went as deep as 3-4metres, and covered vast areas of ground
Acro you can control more with the amount of food you give them.
Theres far more than 2 Leafcutter ant species, to Genus, Acromeyrmex and Atta, each of which have many species, all of which have many diffrent things that define them, to many to list, but a search of google should find you lots of info :)
I should say tho, Leafcutters are not for inexperineced keepers, they require allot of mainting, and a stable warm and humid enviroment, with no molds of ANY kind, or your fungus will die, once the colony is established, the workers produce 'antibodies' that can get rid of most things, but a leaf cutter Queen by herself is a very vunrable ant, and sensitive to allot of things that could kill her, her ability to lay fertilze eggs, and could kill the fungus
Hi Beffie,
do not be fooled by the setup on the link you gave! It will NOT contain the colony for much longer then a few months. Whoever did this report, did not include any long term planing. Any leafcutters take up tremendous amounts of space. See here for more infos and pictures: http://www.antstore.net/viewtopic.php?t=6949
mizt, wasnt the nesting area even 9m deep?
So Beffie, keep those informations in mind when starting a colony... they are nice and small in the beginning, but that changes soon.
Possibly Necturus, the diagrams I have of nests are upto 4m deep, but they are fairly old, so I wouldnt be suprised if there are larger ones, fascinating things they are! amazingly well orangized and constructed :D
the tank in the link is bigger than it seems, the nesting area is 36x36x40cm, which is ok for a while, but yep they will grow fast, although you can control the growth some, it makes more sense to me to get a tank big enough to hold them for at least a few years, the main issue I have with the setup on that link is the Soil & water tank size, the ants will invariably dump the soil into the water as the fungus grows, along with all their waste, this is going to make the water very messy very quickly, so really it needs to be a much bigger tank, with a good filter, and plenty of space so that the nesting tank can be moved around occasionaly to give it a good clean
for a rough guide, we setup one for a school, similar to this setup, but the water tank was 180cm x 60 x 60 (or somthing simlar) the nest tank 60x40x40, it has a large external filter & 2 300w heaters, the tank has been setup for about 2 years now I think, and its teaming with ants! (Acro) I wuld estimate that unless they control the growth, they will need a new setup with 2 years, maybe less
heres another way you could do it, using lots of small, what look like plastic tubs...
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/rtp/students/2003/images/ento2.jpg
original link...
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/rtp/students/2003/gallery03.html
When comparing wild colonies to captive ones, you do have to remeber that wild colonies only grow huge because they are old and the only thing that limits the size is the food which is very plentiful. The colony can be limited easily in captivity, but only after it has reached a sustainable size, or it will fail.
People going on long ant hunting trips will notice the there are occationally Lasius niger collonies that would require a huge setups in captivity, far from the reach of the average hobbiest.
The problem with leaf-cutters, especialy Atta, is that the colony needs to reach a sustainable size in order to survive. In lasius niger, a colony needs reach over 100 ants to stay healthy for a long time, but in Atta, the colony needs to reach several 1000s and have a safe sized fugus garden in order to suvive for a long time. In a small colony of leaf cutters, anything can, and enevitably will, destroy the colony. like with mammals, the baby animal is vertualy helpless, but when adult, it can fend for it's self properly :wink: .
Sorry if no one can undersatnd what i'm saying, i've never been good at writing :oops: .
@ Phasmid: Your explanotion is very clear to me. I understand that a colony Atta´s is much more difficult than Acromyrmex. Do you have leafcutters? Just interesting...
I have choosen for Acromyrmex. Now i am looking for a good set-up (basin) for the ants.