ANTSTORE World of Ants

[highered]

My Polyrhachis dives seem to love nesting in the crunched up black bin bag I put in their basin. Alot of them hang out it the crinkles in the middle of it. The benefit then is you just open it up very easily to see them.

[SNiDE]

sounds creative, not thought/heard of that idea, do you have any pics highered?

[highered]

I got a digital camera for christmas and will be posting some pictures in about a month.

[donbilbo]

Ventilation comes to mind when i think about a plastic bag offered to nest. As soon as they will have enough larvae they will spin chambers in the bag so you wont be abled to watch them any more. I'm allways in favor of natural setups.

[SNiDE]

my colony has weaves across most of the glass where their nest is now, its still cool to see their silk wall twitch under their feet. highered why a month for the pics, you know digital photos dont need to be developed right?

[SNiDE]

Just added a small open area with a moat and PTFE, have had some stray ants hopefully it is escape proof, will put some pics up soon. These ants need loads & loads of space
edit: they cant stop throwing themselves in the water like lemmings. The 2 inches of PTFE on the other side had better stop them or I'm in trouble :p
pps- do they ever learn to stop going in the water? I've spent over an hour standing over them picking them out.. are they all just going to jump in and die?

[donbilbo]

Mine do not have the urge to drown themselves in the water basin. Sometimes some single worker gets thrown into it by evil ants but in general they know not to go into the water.

[SNiDE]

because the water is not too deep at all I think they are going into it to try and escape, only scouting/foraging ants though. About 20 bodies in the water, but some have been put there as trash.. hopefully they will learn after some time. Found a large major outside the island today, it seems the biggest ants can get through the water and the PTFE

[donbilbo]

Yeah, thats why you never keep exotic species on an island...

[SNiDE]

I've seen it done successfully several times before with p.dives...
Anyway, drained the water and added more PTFE, no more escapees and no more dead ants thus far. Will leave it there for a few days and see if it's worth keeping or wether to remove that part of the setup

[donbilbo]

Of course some people just have to do whatever they want. Its just a risk for the environment if alates or winged queens start flying off from that island.

[JimmyVe]

That is why i don't give my ants water without cotton and i don't use it to prevent them from escaping. There are always ants that drown in it.

[highered]

I am waiting for my Polyrhaics dives colony to develop more before I take any photos.

[akell]

Okay. I would like to ask for some advice here if I may. I would like to set up a colony in my office where I can just Zen out and enjoy. I have heard that Polyrhachis dives is one of the most interesting, enjoyable and, relatively, low maintenance exotic species there is. What I am thinking of is a 50x50x50 basin with both open and closed lids, a coconut fibre floor with some humus, some wet and dry mosses, a tree trunk nest and a 1000+ colony with all the food and accessories to make everything go as smoothly as possible. Now this is going to be a 300+Euro investment and I am wondering if any of you gentlemen or ladies with experience in these matters could give me some advice. I am keeping a very small Pheidole pallidula colony, well I don’t know if 4 workers and a queen qualify as a colony, but there it is..., Harpegnathos venator, Odontoponera transversa, Lasius niger, Messor barbarus and Camponotus ligniperda, all beautiful creatures, but they just aren’t floating my boat.
I would be thankful for any comments or help you can give me.

Andrew Kell

[donbilbo]

50x50x50 basin is really really small. A 1000+ colony will double or triple its size in a few months, better think about a 100 to 200cm tank.