Acromyrmex spec. - dodgydogman

Re: Acromyrmex spec. - dodgydogman

Beitragvon dodgydogman » 16. Dez 2008 19:08

16th December - They arrived today hurray!

They came very well packed with a heat pack that was still fairly warm (pretty good considering its winter).
I set my farm up (minor hitch when realised my converter didn’t fit the plug) and after the sensor measured 22 I put the ants inside (I had left them in their packing with the heat pack until it warmed up) and inspected them. As far as i could tell there was a queen, a very very small amount of fungi (lucky I ordered more with it), some brood/eggs and I think 1-2 ants. Little disappointed with the amount of ants but I got what I ordered. One other thing is that the extra fungi I ordered with the ants had a couple of ants in the tube with it.. Is that from the same colony to make sure the fungus doesn’t die or what? I left them in the tank with something covering it to block the light... Should I have put them in with them?
Heat is 25 and humidity is 60% hopefully the hydrometer is warming up or something..

What I got (for people who are wondering about getting them their selves)

1 x Thermo Control II
1 x Heat Thermo Mat 7 W
1 x Bentonit 200gs
1 x Acromyrmex spec. (from Argentina)
- shipping: For these ant colony, we need a risk class declaration
- Size: Queen + 1-3 worker
- extra2: with winter package + heatpack 36h
1 x fungus from Acromyrmex spec. (aus Argentinien)
1 x Hygrometer Rept-O-Meter

I’m not going to check on them for another few hours.
Hurray for ants!

Might upload pics, need to get camera working.

Hope I get replies!
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Re: Acromyrmex spec. - dodgydogman

Beitragvon JimmyVe » 16. Dez 2008 23:34

Great, you have your ants now :).

The fungus that you ordered isn't from the same colony. But now problem with that, just put them together, the workers will not harm the queen or the other workers. This species easly addopt other workers when the colony is small. So put them together and give them leafs, fruit and sweets. (also water, but make sure they can not drown in it)

Heating seems fine, if the humidity don't drop below 60% there is not much to worry about, but it would be better if it is a bit higher.

Good luck.
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Re: Acromyrmex spec. - dodgydogman

Beitragvon dodgydogman » 19. Dez 2008 16:28

19th December
They are doing fine sort of... but I am starting to get worried as they have not cut/taken any leaves (they have moved the grass back out). What should I do, they don’t seem to be foraging at all, and I think their fungus is shrinking. The brood is doing well though.
Is there anything I could do to encourage them to take leaves? Should I introduce different types of leaves?
Is it normal for them to not cut leaves, even when there are small workers to look after the young?
The queen was very active yesterday though and I have added an apple leaf, should I add some apple (fruit)? Will they use that for their fungus or just drink it's juices?

So many questions..

Well here are some pics of them :D (click on them to get better quality :P)
Dateianhänge
IMG_4052.JPG
Picture from yesterday
IMG_4062.JPG
Pic from today (fungus looks much less healthy?) :(
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Re: Acromyrmex spec. - dodgydogman

Beitragvon dodgydogman » 20. Dez 2008 11:34

20th December
Overnight the Humidity has gone to 70%, I will top it up today.
The queen seems to be going out foraging but only collects grass. It has been piled up at the entrance of the tube and is not being put onto the fungus, why is this? It is still early in the day so i will wait and see.
So far it doesnt look good :(.
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Re: Acromyrmex spec. - dodgydogman

Beitragvon damondeionno » 20. Dez 2008 17:08

Ok, I have never kept these ants, but seeing as nobody else is replying and you are worried, I will make a few suggestions:

The apple is a good idea. I would offer lots of different types of fruit.

Give them a variety of leaves. Rose leaves are often mentioned for leafcutters. Maybe some salad, lettuce (washed), cucumber. Remember with food prepared for humans that they often are dosed with pesticide, so it's a bit of a last resort (unless it's organic).

I would even try some dead insects - anything basically to try and get them going. If they don't want it, you can throw it away.

I don't think they will take something that is poisonous to them (except for pesticides), so give them options. In my experience, ants sometimes need to get used to food. None are interested, and then one worker suddenly decides that it's good to eat. The next thing you know they all love it.

What I am trying to say is that it is very difficult to read an ant's brain. If they are not eating then they are probably not happy, and they likely know what they want. Give them options.

Best of luck
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Re: Acromyrmex spec. - dodgydogman

Beitragvon damondeionno » 20. Dez 2008 17:10

Sorry, I should have mentioned that when I feed my ants fruit, I try to take from the inside of the fruit, to reduce the chance of pesticide residues.
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Re: Acromyrmex spec. - dodgydogman

Beitragvon dodgydogman » 23. Dez 2008 21:53

23 November
Not much change. The ants have moved from the test tube to underground but I am not sure if they have taken any fungus with them as they have left most/all of it in the tube. Why is this?
I have removed the rose and have put a different flower in.
So the only question is; Why have they left most of the fungus?
PS. Loads of times I upload a reply and it doesnt stay. Why is this?
Still hurray for ants :D
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Re: Acromyrmex spec. - dodgydogman

Beitragvon mpke » 7. Jan 2009 18:01

update? :)
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Re: Acromyrmex spec. - dodgydogman

Beitragvon dodgydogman » 14. Feb 2022 14:35

When I was 14, I briefly had leafcutter ants until my cat knocked over the formicarium and the queen disappeared. 13 years later I've decided to give it another go! Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

Building the dual layer formicarium


I initially built the enclosure using one box and a heat mat. But this caused so much condensation that I couldn't see inside the box, and since I knew I'd want to stare at the ants a bunch I looked for another solution. Condensation on the roof of the enclosure can also drip onto the fungus, which is bad for it.

Testing the single layer setup: After a day the condensation was so thick you couldn't see inside.
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There’s so much condensation you could barely see inside.
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Condensation forms when an object is a similar temperature to or cooler than the air. So if I want to remove condensation I'll have to heat the air around the formicarium, instead of the formicarium itself. I did this by combining two boxes, one smaller than the other, and heating the space in between. I also added a fan to distribute the air.

The final setup:
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Here you can see the fan in the back (in the heat layer, not the fungus chamber). You can also see the water tube which lets me add water without opening the box.
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I also bought a little security camera which lets me check on the ants when I'm outside the house. I think it looks a bit like a child pressing against the glass at a zoo or something. Lol.
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I put together amazon lists for both the dual layer setup and the single layer setup which might save time for future DIYers
 
Single layer setup (£90)
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Dual layer setup with fans (£155)
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Zuletzt geändert von dodgydogman am 14. Feb 2022 14:42, insgesamt 1-mal geändert.
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Re: Acromyrmex spec. - dodgydogman

Beitragvon dodgydogman » 14. Feb 2022 14:41

Day 1 (10/02/22)
Got the ants from Ants Davey (UK).

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They arrived well packaged, but the fungus ball was pulverised. Which is inevitable. The queen looked healthy with around 50-100 ants surviving the trip.

I put them into the box with some coconut fibre, a bunch of leaves and some dried rose petals.
BildBild

Their first cutting! They seem to only be touching the dried petals, so maybe they're petal cutting ants, not leafcutters.
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This ant can't quite lift the blade of grass they've chosen.
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So far they've spent most of their first day panicking, inspecting the entire box thoroughly, and rescuing the brood.


Day 3 (12/02/22)

They were having trouble getting out of their cup, so I gave them a stick which they almost exclusively use to get in and out of the cup now. I also gave them some flowers and rose leaves.

They spent most of day 2 and 3 ripping up the dried rose petals and occasionally bits of leaf. I'd say half ends up on their fungus and the other half is scattered on their floor. They're very messy ants!
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Also, I noticed lots of the ants are covered in what looks like dust. Apparently, some leafcutters cultivate an antibiotic on their bodies to help combat bad fungus in their garden.
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Day 5 (14/02/22)

They've started cutting more than ever! They demolished a rose leaf, some small flowers and lots of dried rose petals.
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Its fun waking up and using the security camera to see what they did overnight. Its a bit like Where's Waldo, but with ants:
1. Top left leaf was moved.
2. Petals taken.
3. Rose leaf gone.
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Their fungus is slowly growing. This is day 2 vs day 5. there's a lot more structure and volume to the fungus.
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They spent days failing to close the gap in the cup, not realising that mud won't stick to the plastic. Last night they finally figured out how to balance mud such that it doesn't fall down.
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Leafcutters are great because there's always something going on. Here's a traffic jam with four ants wanting to get past each other.
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