ANTSTORE World of Ants

[ymene]

hi all,
What specie should I choose?
i have a 40x30x20 tank, and i like to watch hunting , and nest activities.
I would like to put some live insects like a snail or a caterpillar and then watch the ants surrond him, kill him and taking him to the nest.

thank you for your time.

[Scàth-Siorrai]

you won't be able to see much nest activity in a tank...
ants don't like snails they are sticky

[JNet]

If you have a tank one thing you can do to see nest activity is put a thin layer of soil on the bottom and then put a piece of glass or plexiglass over it. This way you can watch them dig tunnels. Make sure the glass/plexiglass fits inside the tank with one end just a cm. less then the tank.

[gonzobey]

Hello ymeme!

You also have two other possebilities:
1) Bye a gas-aerated concrete, make some tunnels and rooms in it and put this nest into the tank.

2) Create with gypsum a soil-nest. With some modeling clay you can build the nest tunnels and rooms. Mixed the gypsum with water and fill it over the plasticine. After getting hard remove the plasticine and put over the nest a glass from a picture frame.

Hope this could helped you forward :O)

best regards
Bianca

[ymene]

hey all, thanks for the replys.
My tank measures are 50x30x30 (finished building it today)
The plan i had was to put a plastic box (40x20x15) in the middle of the tank, after this i would fill the tank with loam and sand, this way the ants were forced to build their tunnels by the glass.

|---------------|->tank
|*********|
|*|----------|*|
|*|plastic--|*|
|*|box-----|*|
|*|----------|*|
|*********|
|---------------|

but the idea for me to build the tunnels sound nice, were can i buy gas-aerated concrete?
The main question remains what kind of ants should i buy?
perhaps Myrmica rubra? they kill just about any insect i put them right?

[jogi]

Hi Ymene,

the gas-aerated concrete you can get in any DIY store. Myrmica rubra is a good choice. Its very simple to keep them, if the humidity is high enough. But may be, they are not going to kill any insect...

good luck,

Joachim