ANTSTORE World of Ants

[highered]

Thanks for the setup pictures though I'm sure you will get condensation in the chambers. I assume you will drill lots of small holes in the glass to ventilate the condensation? Thats maybe what I'd do. I'm also interested in how you created the chambers. Did you use clay which you bought and then molded? It does look good.

[Phasmid]

Thanks for the setup pictures though I'm sure you will get condensation in the chambers. I assume you will drill lots of small holes in the glass to ventilate the condensation?

I can’t see how drilling holes in the glass would work. Ventilating the chambers to fight condensation would mean getting enough airflow in the chambers dry the air and stop the moisture from condensing on the glass, but you need to keep the humidity.
You’re unlikely to get sufficient air flow in the chambers to reduce condensation; you get condensation on cool objects in a breeze outside.
You could put the heat source against the glass, so that the glass is warmer than the air in the chambers, to stop condensation, however this direct heat could warm surfaces in the chamber resulting in ants/brood drying up (so they move somewhere else).

The best method I can think of for removing condensation in a humid tank is to have the room they are in at the desired temp and humidity.

All in all, you might just have to put up with condensation.

[highered]

Yes, but by putting up with condensation, if you don't wipe it off, you will eventually (after about 1-2 months) get mold. I am interested in how to achieve this high humidity effect without condensation in the nest. I must be able to be done or people wouldn't be able to keep those sort of ants.

[McK]

That setup is not good for the following reasons.

1. It is way to big for such a small colony, they will use the rooms as waste disposal rooms.
2. The rooms are poorly carved, you are wasting to much space, you need much more floors in the rooms where they can put the brood.
3. As your colony gets bigger the workers will have to get to the last rooms as quickly as possible, the way you made you rooms make the "flow" of ants nearly impossible.
4. The big log will start to degenerate causing mold, which isn't good for ants.

There are a lot more reason, but basically you used a very expensive ant and put it in a poorly made nest.
Also, if you pay that amount of cash for ants, you are insane.

[highered]

I don't think paying that much for ants is bad, after all they are the biggest you can get. If they were only 2cm for that price is probably too much, but they are soo big and if you save up I think it is worth it.

[highered]

How are your ants doing now. Have you tried them with raw meat yet?

[undercoverAnt]

Hi Neab,

I am very new to ants, so won't be keeping this species any time soon. That said, how is the colony doing? do you still have it?

Thanks,

G

[sebastianlondon]

Hi,
just wondered how your Paraponera were doing? Ive recently got some but they don't seem to be doing that well. (please see other post.

Sebastian

[tartally]

Hi All,

I have ordered a small Paraponera colony this summer and I would like to inform you that the 1st worker of my Paraponera queen (where 2 workers died off and one escaped in summer) is hatched yesterday. So, I'm very happy now.

I was collecting the peaces of information from several sites and would like to send you my experiments. Here's a helpful paper about rearing this species, I think you know it: Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

There are some important but simple key points which should be known and is not emphasized well on the ant ordering webpages. I believe that the workers died of at the beginning because I haven't known these exactly:

- No honey but 10% sugar water is needed: this ant is a saccharose specialist

- This often hunts termites and the best protein sources are therefore the juveniles of the related cockroaches (but e.g. the Shelfordella tartara is smelly for this but e.g. Blaptica dubia and Gromphadorhina portentosa are good), which should be reared in good quality meal to transport the vitamines to the ant. I gave the cockroaches directly to the nest day by day and changed the sugar water droplets also day by day

- The humidity should be high but the nest should be dry to avoid the of fungal infection

- The terrarium should be large and the starter colony needs a c.a. 8x8x1,5 cm dark chamber with a c.a. 10 cmx1,5 cm tube and the entrance should be at a corner of the terrarium

- The larvae are not able to pupate withouth peaces of e.g. of peat (or some other thing which can not get fungal infection).

I hope you don't mind these peaces of information, let me if you have any suggestions about this.

Happy New Year,

András

[tartally]

...oh, and the developing time is very slow, you do not need to annoy about it!

[barbet]

Still alive and kicking?

[password-remind@mail.ru]

Hello dear friends! Can u help me pls? I have a problem with my paraponera clavata's colony. Ants for the fourth time in a row open the cocoon ahead of time. In the photo they just got this ant out of the cocoon. Tell me, please, what could be the reason?
I have photos too

[Serafine]

How's your humidity? If ants die during pupating or get born disformed it's usually because humidity is too low and the brood has dried out.
Remember those are tropical ants, our average room humidity is WAY too dry for them (doesn't really bother the adult ants but it's a huge problem for the brood). Where they come from it has 90-100% relative air humidity most of the time.

[password-remind@mail.ru]

Maybe you're right! I recently began to reduce their humidity. One man who kept bullet ants here, claims that they need low humidity. Does he mean wrong?

[password-remind@mail.ru]

How's your humidity? If ants die during pupating or get born disformed it's usually because humidity is too low and the brood has dried out.
Remember those are tropical ants, our average room humidity is WAY too dry for them (doesn't really bother the adult ants but it's a huge problem for the brood). Where they come from it has 90-100% relative air humidity most of the time.

Maybe you're right! I recently began to reduce their humidity. One man who kept bullet ants here, claims that they need low humidity. Does he mean wrong?