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Andrew: Two differnet species sharing a basin (25. Jul 2008 01:02)

If i have Pogonomymrex and Lasuis neoniger sharing a basin, would that be alright.

miszt: (25. Jul 2008 01:07)

I dont know the specifics of these species, but I would not expect them to stay comfortable with one anothers presence for very long, the problem is that in the wild, there is a HUGE amount of food, and often ants can live side by side with minimal conflict, in captivity however, food levels are much lower, and one (Pogono I expect) will assert its dominance on a regular basis, and possibly even raid and destroy the other nest

JimmyVe: (26. Jul 2008 14:25)

You can keep some species together, but it is always to give them different farms.

Andrew: (26. Jul 2008 23:21)

But would they fight each other. It would be the same of Messor Barbarus and Lasius Niger.

tail__: (27. Jul 2008 08:06)

All species you talk about are agressive and territorial, they will fight for sure, and only one colony will remain. You will have some chance with some less agressive species, but even this can be difficult in small territory. Actually the food isn't real problem, ants in formicarium are very well fed and don't need to work so hard for food as the ants in nature. But every ant colony likes to have it's own territory, and even the smallest ant territories are much bigger than a typical arena. This can lead to territorial conflicts even if the food will be abundant.

Andrew: (27. Jul 2008 14:16)

Ok, how large does a arena have to be?

JimmyVe: (28. Jul 2008 12:00)

Depending on the species. For most species you can not make the arena (out world) large enough like they would have in nature.

miszt: (28. Jul 2008 12:55)

All species you talk about are agressive and territorial, they will fight for sure, and only one colony will remain. You will have some chance with some less agressive species, but even this can be difficult in small territory. Actually the food isn't real problem, ants in formicarium are very well fed and don't need to work so hard for food as the ants in nature. But every ant colony likes to have it's own territory, and even the smallest ant territories are much bigger than a typical arena. This can lead to territorial conflicts even if the food will be abundant.

nope, compared to a wild colony, captive colonies are very under fed, in the wild you can find Lasius niger, flavus & Myrmica spec with nests less than 1m apart, in Africa there where 3 diffrent Ponera, Odo & Crematogastor living inside one wall, they are all very aggressive species, but because they have enough food they do not have to remove any competition, you still get domination behaviour, but not in the same way. Its all about food, the only reason that ants keep their territory is so they have access to all the food

damondeionno: (28. Jul 2008 13:13)

Mizt, the situation you talk about does occur in tropical environments, but I don't think it's just about food, it's also about type of food. In tropical environments there are many more species and many of these species are specially adapted in terms of their lifestyle and focus on certain food types. This is why there is less conflict.

2 species that do coexist very close to one another in the UK and L. flavus and L. niger. This is because the flavus are almost entirely subteranean. The niger forage on the surface, even over the top of flavus nests, while the flavus cultivate aphids on the roots of grasses.

Andrew: (28. Jul 2008 15:58)

ok, what if i used a container for their outworld?


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