ANTSTORE World of Ants

[donbilbo]

Numbers of english Polyrhachis dives keepers seem to be growing by the day.
How about showing your colonies and writing some stats about them?

Colony bought in: June 2008 with 4 Queens / 150 workers
Colony size now: 1000-2000 workers, i really cant say
Feeding them: Sugar water, loads of crickets, flys and larvae
Temperature: ~26° Celsius
Humidity: i dont care

Pictures below:

[SteveUK28]

has to be said donbilbo but when ive seen you talking about your setup.. i imagined something amazing.. I didnt expect to be honest to see 3 tanks that are practicaly empty
I mean the way you was talking it sounded like there was hundreds and hundreds of them on view.. which sounded dam exciting.. but i have to see its pretty boring.. why no plants?? And WHY so much room?? surely they only need 2 tanks max?? Anyhows.. please dont take offence.. just positive criticism

[donbilbo]

No im perfectly fine with criticism. I had to remove all plants because mites were delivered with those plants and i did not know if they would hurt the ants. I give them space because now i am abled to do so - if i wait another 3-6 months it will be impossible to connect tanks the way i do without mass breakout. I have 5 options to connect tubes so its still kind of extendable. My basement is full of tree branches i got from the woods, they need to dry before i can put them in.

About the huge space, there are many reports on the german board and some on the english board reporting those ants killing themselves, killing queens, carriyng dead ants forever and so on. Thats why i opt for the biggest basins possible with selfmade lids. Those lids only have a small opening to operate inside.
Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar <- this is what a huge colony looks like, to be honest i would not want to keep those in a normal basin with a huge lid to be removed to operate inside. can you imagine all those alates flying off?
Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar <- this (60x30x30 basin) is what a nest looks like when you manage to keep them for a longer time. Do you really think you can keep them in only two basins? I am planning ahead because i want to keep them for years, not some months.

Just post your setups, show your huge colonies, maybe my setup sucks worst, thats why we are here, to give help and criticize.

[Skippy]

Now I have time so I can write here something too ...
I keep ants for long time and I had really huge colonies , not only in hundreats , but in huge thousands (F.polyctena 5k pop 20 queens ... C.vagus 1+2000 adult , M.rubra 8k+40 queens cca)... now I am hibernating and just making some formicariums and terariums for the another animals.

For terariums I am using cactuses (or aloe tylandsia and so) , but P.dives is tropical so you can use just plastic flowers specialized for terarium , or make this Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar (in Czech lang.)

I see you put here much of fans , what power you using for it? ... some bought or like me - from PC (350V). Heating is OK , in my experience P.dives needs dry nest with a bit wet air , so humidity is not so important when you feed them with sugar water. But I see small light there ... maybe there is bigger light in room so it is not so good to see how much it shine. Better to use more powerful lights , because ants moderating their food huntng activity by it.

To get some place you have to use some roots , branches there , you know every m2 is useful for ants , not only on ground.

S

[donbilbo]

Skippy youre right, i will add much more m² by adding more tree branches and stuff like that.
Those 3 lights are really a compromise between heat and maintenance costs. I use 35w lighting-bulps, they can heat those basins to 26° Celsius even with only 19° Celsius room temperature. I cant use 100w per bulp, those electricity costs would kill me. Allready spending well over 25euros a month on food for that colony. Those fans are 230v, i let them run for 5 minutes each second hour, blowing fresh air inside the tanks.

No one else wants to share some pics?

[SteveUK28]

donbilbo.. have you ever thought about breeding crickets??

[donbilbo]

Yes, i tried to find some guide about breeding crickets but i was told its only working for smaller needs. I feed ~20-30 crickets a day, right now i have some nice huge fly-larvae to feed so i only give ~15 crickets a day.
I could also try to get some better deals on live crickets, there are some shops online selling huge packages of living crickets but they do not deliver during winter.

[akell]

I looked at those links you posted. Looks like refugee camps. Skippy is absolutely right. It is m2. Of course you have to have a certain amount of m2 to get to a good m3. Like a skyscraper, lots and lots of m3. Now I asked for advice awhile ago and what did I get? A 1/2 cubic meter is nothing, way too small; prove me wrong, et cetera. But, as you yourself just said, the reason we communicate with each other here is to learn from each other, not compete with each other. Not to smack a big "I told you so" on each other. Don't you think bilbo?
I was shown a neat trick by a very knowledgeable guy. He puts paraffin oil on a tissue and just wipes it across the top edges of the basin walls. Maybe 3-4cm. The P dives treat it like razor wire, so it is much easier to lift the lid on a basin. I’ve done it with both the large and small basin and invested in a pair of the long fodder pliers from the store and have not had a problem with 100’s of ants swarming either out of the basin or up my arm. You’re right Bilbo, they do eat a lot, that’s for sure. The 1000 I am keeping now picked two fish heads clean in two days. It’s cheap food, but it don’t smell too good!
Now I've been trying to post some photographs but is isn’t working, so I am going to try it in two posts.
It’s good to get info, gentlemen. Again, I’d appreciate your insight on my photographs, how you get them 1000kb I don't know...
Thanks,
A
P.S. I think Reptlienkosmos.de ships in the winter

[akell]

Photo, had to crop half of it

[donbilbo]

Akell if you can not attach them in this board, try uploading the picture on Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar they give you a code to copy&paste in message boards.

Besides that, of course we should not measure our egos by our ants or setups. thats why i say i have a colonly with aprox. 1000 ants, could also be 3000, no one can count those little buggers. I just feel they need the space, of course i could also stuff one basin with a ton of branches but thats not the same. Those two links i put in here are from a real expert at keeping ants, you can clearly see several hundret winged ants on his pictures, paraffin oil wont keep them from flying.

As you mentioned in another thread, your colony does not have larvae right now. (maybe from transportation) Expect a huge difference in behavior when they are back to their normal levels of egg laying and brood feeding. Then you can decide if you need another basin. I made the decision for me to add as much basins as soon as possible because now i can add them easily, when the colony has done another jump in growth maintenance will get harder and harder. Just sharing my thoughts...

[akell]

Good for you bilbo! Have fun!

[donbilbo]

I guess thats what one gets for taking the time to type a well intended reply. Just go and do whatever the fuck you want to do with your ants, you have truly proven you know what you have bought and what you are doing by posting like a hundret questions over the last weeks. I will have fun reading your next questions on these boards, i guess it wont be a long time waiting. German boards are full of people who thought they knew how to manage polyrhachis dives, knowing everything better, not taking hints. After a few month most of them gave away or lost their colony.

[SteveUK28]

I know a place that sells crickets bulk buy.. like 400-600 large crickets in a bag.. All you need then is a tank.. with some egg cartons and a pot or two of sand for them to lay eggs in.. ohh and of course a place for them to feed.. crickets are fairly easy to breed i do it myself.. but usualy not with large ones.. but im guessing as you have such a large colony you would need to start large.. or perhaps buy 2 bags.. one large and one medium If you want the site send me a pm.. not sure they deliver outside UK tho

[highered]

I have found that if you email the cricket shops before ordering they will put heat packs in with your order. The cost might vary between shops though.

[jartok]

Also if u keep heatmat on crickets they grow and breed faster just have more then 1 basin so once one finished u can use the other and keep swapping but with amount u using u might want 5