ANTSTORE World of Ants

[matthewtinnion]

Hi, It has been very interesting reading about peoples experiences with ants in the forum so I though I would share mine as I go.
I bought a small colony of Atta cephalotes roughly 200 workers and the Queen, there are no soldiers and I don't think there are any major workers yet but lots of smaller workers.
The colony arrived in a small Tupperware tub from Scotland on time and no dead ants (woo hoo), Ive had them for three days now and there have been a couple "learning" incidents!
My initial setup was following the easy exotics water moat setup that you find if you search for such things on Google, but As i found out Its not a good idea to leave your ants to swim to safety if they fall in the water, as when i woke up on day 2 there were 18 dead ants in the water!!! which is not good.
I have no experience of the castes of the workers but it seemed like the forager cast (I mean simply the foragers) had all fell in the water and died and I never saw a leaf be cut for 3 days out side of the nest!
I added a leaf to the inside of the nest,( a leaf from my chilly plant, which they seemed to like) and few cuts of that were taken and dropped around the fungus (not on it, but close).
The fungus does not look as virile as when it arrived, the fungus is not as bright and not a lot of new leaves have been added! i start getting a bad feeling about the colony after transit as the queen appears not to move for a full day!

day 3, The ants have started sending new foragers out for leafs and a surplus is building around the nest, some are slowly being added to the garden but still the garden shrinks as the ants dump the used fungus outside of the nest!
Mat.

I will update week to week and add Photos.

My setup Now consists of a 2 ft x 1 ft x1.5 ft aquarium which is half full of water and has glass lid to keep in humidity for the ants, the bottom half of the tank is attached to a sump tank with a filter and a heater to keep the water clear and clean, I might be adding some tropical fish to it if the water is clear enough. the ants sit on a table just above the water line, the water is kept at about 29C which keeps the air and ants at about 26C and very humid.

The queen seems to have recovered fully, she moves around the fungus garden every hour or so covered in tini minimas(workers) who are very interested in her, there are loads of leafs around the garden but still it doses not seem to be very healthy. Not sure if i'm missing something but only time will tell.

[gabranth]

what are tini minims

[donbilbo]

So let me get this straight, you are keeping Atta cephalotes on an island? Are these your first ants because that is ridiculous. Those ants are well known for building huge colonies including many connected tanks, they build huge fungus gardens so i would guess their natural desire is to feel some walls like they have below the surface. Besides that they need space and you are trying to keep them in one single tank with exotic fish?

[gabranth]

these are the best ants for beginners

[insanebe]

I can't visualise your set up ......

[Phasmid]

From experiance I would say that an island is not a great idea for the home no matter how good they look in a zoo, a big box with a good water holding medium at the bottom for the fungus garden saves alot of space anf energy.

[matthewtinnion]

Hi, what i meant by minims was the smallest cast of worker,
I will explain a little bit further about the setup for those who are interested.
The water in the tank was only for the humidity, but following a care sheet (the only one i could find) these ants would be happy to avoid the water, (they were not!).
The fish was just an idea to make the place a bit nicer. Nothing in there at the minute.
The ants are on an Island but contained in large plastic tank which has divisions inside and mesh wall vents to allow gass and humidity exchange, They are a small colony at the minute so they will be staying there for now.
When the colony gets too big to look after I will be giving it to my old school I know I'd have loved it if My school had one!

Thanks for the advice about the fungus garden Plasmid, I was thinking of using perlite as a medium to create a good humidity but I like how it is at the minute as everything is contained and there are no fluctuations.

Any advice will be appreciated as this is obviously my first attempt at leaf cutters.

[McK]

these are the best ants for beginners

I hope that was sarcastic...

If they are your first colony, I'd give them a week before you kill them.
Judging by your post I'd say you are well on your way.

I am absolutely stunned by the extent of amateurism in this thread.

there are no soldiers and I don't thing there are any major workers yet but lots of smaller workers.

"Soldiers" and major workers are the same thing.

- The colony arrived in a small Tupperware tub from Scotland on time and no dead ants (woo hoo)
- day 2 there were 18 dead ants in the water!!! which is not good.

The fact that a very rough transportation didn't kill any workers and you did says enough about your experience.

I have no experience of the cases of the workers but it seemed like the forager cast had all fell in the water and died and I never saw a leaf be cut for 3 days out side of the nest!

I've never heard of a 'forager' cast, there are minors, medium and major workers though.
They should have start cutting leaves the first day when they arrived.

The ants have started sending new foragers out for leafs and a surplus is building around the nest, some are slowly being added to the garden but still the garden shrinks as the ants dump the used fungus outside of the nest!

If the fungus dies, the colony dies too.

So my advice is, get yourself a Lasius niger colony, try to keep them alive and send your Atta colony to someone who knows what the hell he's doing.

[Skippy]

Keep Atta ants is not funny ... , you need only experience of keeping ants , good tools and formicarium , also some tips of professional and HUGE luck .... OR , be very experienced keeper and have some ideas , planes of it , good formicarium , then buy them ...

I am keeping and studying ants for more than 10 years , and I´ve never tried it what I have fear of it

[matthewtinnion]

Thanks for all the positive comments and help guys,

Update on the colony : -

The colony has started to build the fungus garden back. Over night they have incorporated a large amount of plant material into the existing garden, the temp remains steady at 26.5C and the new humidity is around 100% with the modified tank (I figured the relative humidity was low inside the garden compared with the main tank). I have added a pump with a Venturi system which draws in fresh air from out side and pumps it through the aquarium water adding new humid air and forcing old stale air out.

If any of the people who are not pleased with my progress would like to offer some helpful comments that would be appreciated.

Mat.

[matthewtinnion]

Here are some photos of the colony

A worker carrying bramble leaf

Close up of new fungus growth 1

The dark leaves are bramble leaves and the fresher looking leaves are from a chilly plant, all the leaves were added last night immediately after the humidity was raised, the colony had cut alot of leaves and left the lying around the fungus but had not added much, today there was mainly scraps of leaf lying round the nest .

Close up of new fungus growth 2

Mat.

[McK]

Check out Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar.

The blogs are translated from Dutch to English, but I think it's still a great help.

[damondeionno]

Guys

I think some people are being a bit unduly negative on this thread.

This guy doesn't sound like an idiot, so I don't know why people are treating him like one.

I've never kept Atta or Acromyrmex, and I appreciate that it's a challenge, but to me it seems as if matthew is thinking about what he is doing.

If the ants die, that's his problem. I think ants are great and have been keeping them since I was 8 years old. I've also killed a fair few colonies in my time. I don't think you can be cruel to ants in the same way that you can to a cat, dog or even fish.

On the other hand, he seems to want advice and that's partly what this forum is for.

Matthew, it might help if you post some pictures of your setup so people can get an idea of what you are doing.

btw. I don't think the fish are a completely ridiculous suggestion. Guppy's or something like that would probably do all right, though if the ants start dumping rubbish into the water, the nitrate, nitrite and ammonia levels will rocket.

[Phasmid]

If there is lots of leaf fragments lying around the nest it is often because the fungus isn't happy about these leaves so they won't be added to the garden. You need to experiment more with leaf types until you find one that is definitely being fed to the fungus otherwise it won't grow.
When I first received my leaf-cutters they did alot of dumping of fungus and brood for a few days, I thought there was something horribly wrong but it seems that they just needed a major clean out after being stuck in a box for a few days, they slould recover soon if they are kept right, just make sure you don't stress them.

If there is anyone else who wants to keep leaf-cutter ants but has limited experience then I strongly recomend you buy a young Acromyrmex colony (not lone queen) first and keep them for a couple of years before you attempt keeping Atta. I have thrown everything at my Acromyrmex (due to inexperience) but they still stand strong.

[matthewtinnion]

Hi, Ive got a question for you lot.
My Atta have a fungus garden set up the same as the one in the previous link with a Ferraro Roche box, I did not put any extra ventilation in the roof, the ants immediately blocked the entrance up almost completely leaving a hole just big enough for the larges workers to come and go, now I'm sure that there should be more air flow through the nest so I'm inclined to drill a few small air holes in the roof just to be on the safe side! If any one has had the same problem or similar could you let me know.
thanks.