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electric-man: How many Queens in an aquarium? (14. Aug 2010 22:05)

Hello All,

Last week I picked up two Lasius Niger queens, one with wings and one without, I then prepared an empty aquarium I had with several layers of sand, made it wet etc etc, put some stones on top. Both of the Queens started digging after a while. Now, ofcourse I am not sure if these queens are fertile. Question one: Can I leave them both in, I have a qubic aquarium of about 30 by 30 cm.

Tonight in another part of the country I found another big queen, can I also let that one go in the same aquarium? Or can I use a big bottle filled with sand? I just want to make sure something happens, and not risk having infertile queens.

Hope to hear from somebody!

Thanks!

baumarkthammer: Re: How many Queens in an aquarium? (14. Aug 2010 23:19)

When the first workers will appear the colonies in the basin will kill each other, Lasius niger is a very aggressiv species that fights other colonies very fast.
The queen without the wings is probably infertile.
You can only keep one Lasius niger colony in a basin.
I would buy testing tubes for the queens so you can always see after them.

electric-man: Re: How many Queens in an aquarium? (15. Aug 2010 12:54)

Hi Baumarkthammer,

Thanks for your reply!

When I picked up the queens, I though maybe the one with the wings was not fertilized yet, because maybe it did not fly yet? Anyway, Can I both leave them in? Or should I now take one out? Although she already burried under the sand, besides the fact that I do not know which one is which ofcourse :-).

I have some testing tubes, so I can just put the Queen in? Why not in a bottle with sand or something similar??

baumarkthammer: Re: How many Queens in an aquarium? (15. Aug 2010 13:48)

When you put the queen in a tube with water than you can see what she does and if she still is alive.
So you can put them in a the nest you want later on, i think that is a much better than putting them in a bottle and you don´t have to water them at all on the other hand if you ferget to water them when they live in a bottle you have to water them very regulary.
If one of the queens does still have her wings you could try to let her in because she probably will not produce males.