ANTSTORE World of Ants

[CapitalO]

Ive almost finished putting together my first formicarium. I still have to fill the nesting area with some soft of substrate for the ants to nest in. Its pretty unique looking and probably more closely resembles the typical vivarium than a formicarium .

The bottom layer consists of a 2cm layer of freshwater aquarium gravel covered by a coco-fiber mat. This will allow the water to drain into the bottom of the tank and be siphoned out if the level gets too high. I put a thin layer of fir bark over the top of the mat, primarily for aesthetics, but also for maintaining humidity. The piece of wood is locally collected grapevine, and the air plants are from my old vivarium. The nesting area is going to be located in between the flat rock and the wall of the tank (right side). I put a small piece of vinyl tubing into the corner that leads to the bottom. I stuffed a paper towel into the bottom of the tube with the rest of the paper towel extending across the base of the nesting area for moisture. I covered the glass next to the nest with a piece of aquarium backing that can be lifted up for viewing.

I haven't settled on the ant species I'm going to keep, so I haven't decided on the nesting material yet. I suppose I will have to keep a carnivorous species since I don't want them to tear up the plants

Any recommendations on good DIY nesting materials? I might collect some sandy soil locally and try to sterilize it the best I can; any advice on this process would be great . Well, heres the progress so far:

Full tank shot:



Side view (opposite side of nesting area):



These two shots show the nesting area without any nesting substrate, notice the watering tube on the right side:

[miszt]

sand can be sterlized in the oven at 200C for 30-60mins

u may want to consider installing some kind of fan if ur going for a humid and hot setup, otherwise you'll get allot of condensation and probly allot of mold

Looks nice anyway

I've got a similar setup but using a ytong in the base for the nest

http://www.antstore.net/viewtopic.php?t=6717

apart from Leaf cutters, no ants eat plants, so no worry there

[CapitalO]

miszt- Very nice setup, those ants are very cool looking as well . As for the ventilation issue, Ive had good luck with using partial screen tops on smaller tanks like this (vivariums). Hopefully I can repeat the success for this setup without having to install a fan; I'd like to keep this one as simple and inexpensive as possible

[JimmyVe]

Very nice farm CapitalO. Good job.

[sithmaster676]

looks like a great setup well done
Sithmaster676

[ant dude]

yes well done CapitalO on the set-up, pics and farm looks quite good

[Messorus]

Keep up good work, this looks GREAT
Whic ants are you going to keep there? I can give you a tip,- Pachycondyla impressa :D

[CapitalO]

Thanks for the compliments everybody

Messorus- Unfortunately I'm at the mercy of the US goverment so I can't order any exotic species. I will have to settle for a local species I can find.

[SteveUK28]

You dont really Capital.. You could always get one of us brits to mail you some.

[miszt]

You dont really Capital.. You could always get one of us brits to mail you some.

Its particuly dangerous to send exotic ants to America, as many parts of it are warm enough to support colonies in the wild, which means any escape could be a disaster........the Fire Ant is a perfect example of an ecological disastor in the making

Apart from the very hard penalties involved if u get caught!

[SteveUK28]

Not such a good idea then lol

[Purifier]

I hope this wont happen to Germany. I would buy me more exotics in the future and i don´t want that our government cross my plan ^^

[CapitalO]

So here I am, busily awaiting the arrival of spring so I can actually get some ants for my formicarium . I did a bit of work on the formicarium today so I decided to post some pics for an update. I also made a short video of an isopod in the tank which came out remarkably good (see bottom of post for link).

The grapevine that was originally in the formicarium began to grow fungi (come to find out you should never use grapevine in tropical vivaria for this reason). So, Ive since replaced it and introduced a clean up crew of springtails and isopods. Also, I rescued a half dead orchid from a friend and put it in the formicarium -Its enjoying the high humidity and seems to be making a comeback. Check it out:




Also, Ive had some very nice lichen growth on the new wood:




And last but certainly not least, I took this short video of an isopod using the reversed lens technique with my compact digi cam (I started a thread in the photography forum about this technique). I was REALLY surprised by the quality of the video considering it was taken with a consumer digi cam. The isopod is about 3-4mm long. The file is only about 1.3Mb (lost some quality in the conversion, the fps seems a little sluggish, but it still looks good).

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[miszt]

the Orchid should do really well once the ants arrive looking good so far!

isopod is a much cooler name than woodlouse init! interesting idea using them in the formicarium, they are pretty safe from most species of ant, look forward to hearing how they get on, mite be a good thing to introduce to some of my own

[CapitalO]

Thanks miszt! I didn't know the common name for isopods in Britain or Europe so I went for the most universal name. They are commonly called wood lice here, among many other names.