ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Ashton McStansfieldio]

Helllo,
I have a new colony of Pheidologeton diversus on the way and i`m all set up ready to go.

Only thing im still worried about is getting the moisture level of my y-tong right. I have reseviours in the top of the y-tong but only a very small area of the block is actualy changing colour at all.

how do i post a picture on here?

I have hosted my image and typed in
Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

that didn`t work so i tried just the bit between [IMG] and [IMG]

that didn`t work so I wrote
insert image: [img] blah blah[img]
I dunno what im doing wrong:(

[EDIT] Now I could edit out that deliberate mistake,... but i thought it was too funny:)

So, anyway.... if you click on my pic to enlarge it a bit you can see the darker spots at the top of the y-tong they are the wet bits. So can anyone tell me if this sort of moisture should be adequate or should I try to up the moisture level somehow?

any help greatly appreiciated,
Thank you,
Ashton

[Necturus]

Oi Mate,
thanks for the nice mistake
As for the moisture, i always followed a simple rule: If theres water condensating on the Glas, its a tiny bit too much I always place a test tube with water near the entry of the nest. If i see any traffic there, i know i havent been giving enough water, and i add some. After a while, you will get the hang of it. For now, i would give the ytong stone some air.
Point the light at one corner of the ytong, and they will pick wich place they like best. Likely to be the warmest one, although im willing to bet they will take the lowest chamber first.
And a last tip on having them move in: Place the test tube next to the ytong entry. cover it with completely, make sure its dark, and let them choose when to move. Interference in this time is often fatal.
Good luck!
Necturus

[Ashton McStansfieldio]

Thanks for the reply mate:)

So, you think my block is a little too wet?
OK then, I will dry it out a bit and do as you say with the water avaliablle just outside the nest as a gauge.
thanks for the advice:)

[JimmyVe]

In deed, wet enough.

Nice reading your mistakes hehe.

I have my new colony since Friday. For now they are still in there tube, placed the tube in an out world and put this on a heat mat.

@Necturus: do you think i need to move them soon ? ore will they do fine in the tube for a few weeks ?

[Necturus]

hey jimmy,
im generally carefull with heating maps. Besides the fact that the temperature is coming from the opposite side then it does in nature, it dries out the ground realy fast, and you will have to wet the substrate a lot of times.
As for the test tube, i usualy wait till they decide to move. But its a very small nesting areas with no differences in temperature or wetness, and they can hardly ever choose which corner of the tube they like best. Im always happy to see they moved They do like theire own nests a lot and are hard to force out, and wont move in till they checked out the new area very intensely. So for now, keep the tube close to the future nest, and cover it completely, they get really stressed with light coming in.
Greetings,
Necturus

[JimmyVe]

Thanks Necturus, i know you have more experience with this species than i do so i appreciate you advice.

I now have two tubes connected to an out world. One is on the heating mat the other one not so they can choose. For now is in deed the heating coming from below, but with my y-tong nests i put the heating mat above the nest. The tubes are completely covered. I make them a y-tong nest soon but i do not have the time for it now, if it is finished i put the tube in the new farm so they can move if they like.

Greetings

[Ashton McStansfieldio]

Hey guys,
My new colony has arrived, I`ve done away with the big tank this time and made a simple y-tong setup with a hose attachment to a small substrate-less arena I`ll post some pics of the setup soon.

for now though:

Here is a pic of the colony still in the test tube. You can see the brood and a major


Shot with Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar at 2007-09-29

This is a pic. of the colony inside the y-tong nest. you can see the shapes of one or two of the developing ants if you look closely


Shot with Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar at 2007-09-29

And this is another shot inside the nest. you can clearly see the huge queen, brood and a nice size major and there is an unlucky woodlouse in there for a scale referance:P


Shot with Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar at 2007-09-29

Hope you like the pics, I`ll try to scale them right next time so that they dont mess with the forum width size.....
Ashton

[JimmyVe]

Very nice pictures and ants Ashton. I like them very much to.

Hope you like the pics, I`ll try to scale them right next time so that they dont mess with the forum width size.....

Please do.

[Necturus]

I agree,
my cheap camera doesnt get near what you are doing! Please post more and report the colony growth - same i would ask from you, Jimmy
@Jimmy: your setup sounds perfect! You sure you dont want to try with a light again? Seems a bit harder to control temperature with it, but maybe you tried it before - im just sceptical because i read a report of a dieing colny after the use of the heatingmap, but i think that was a soil nest, and no ytong.
Greetings and good luck to both of you!
Also i added a few pictures to my report, if you are curious:
http://www.antstore.net/viewtopic.php?p=54278#54278
Greetings, Necturus

[Ashton McStansfieldio]

Hey Jimmy, how`s it going?
I read your post`s on the faulty thermostat and demise of your colony. That is real unfair. I`m glad you were able to find yourself a new colony and I wish you the best of luck with it.
Thanks for the help with my setup too.

I`m monitering the moisture level at the minute.
The colony has made its nest directly on top of the submerged
y-tong "leg" so hopefully the moisture is getting through. I have left the reservoir at the top of the y-tong empty for now.
There has been a steady flow of workers to the old test tube which I have left in the outworld basin for now. not sure yet if they are using the water resevior of just re-tracing old pathways. sure ther`s no food or anything left in it..... I`ll keep an eye on it.

Hey Necturus, I will keep a journal on the ants, just thinking, it is probably not wise to keep uncovering the nest for pictures too often. I do have a red lightbulb to minimise the disturbance would you or jimmy have any advice on this?

I like your new pics too mate, how many fertile queens in your colony now?? for my pictures I used a universal macro lense called a raynox m-250. Fits most camera`s I think and they are about £25 on ebay. Did you use any lens or anything your shots are quality:)

[JimmyVe]

@ Necturus: i know heating maps are not save nether but i only cover up one part of the nest with them so if it gets to hot they can move to a colder place. And i only use mats that do not heat to much.
Very nice pictures.

@ Ashton: In deed it sucked... I'm glad to i have found a new colony. They are doing really fine now.

In my experience, as long if there is no direct light in to the nest you do not disturb them much by taking pictures. just uncover the nest slowly and take some pictures.

[Necturus]

Hey Ashton, maybe i got your formulation wrong, but you dont have to keep the tank filled at all times:)
For pictures, i work with indirect dimmed light and keep the "session" as short as possible. I use the Flash on the camera and only use enough background lightning to allow the cam to focus. I found that creates the least reaction of stress.
In the beginning, the colony consisted of 2 queens, i added another one, since i wanted to minimize the number of queens dependant on worker adoption. Trying to adopt a 4th queen did not work out, and she was killed. The colony seemes to have been to small to support 4 of them.
I assume all of them are fertile, though i should be carefull with those things and observe the next few months. There are 2 drone puppae present, and i hope the amount of male offspring will stay low-2 dont worry me too much for now.
My cam is a 70€ product, no extras added. I experimented with magnifiying glases, but the focus point is very small, it gets very complicated to handle and you usualy block the light of the flash. I only use it on test tubes.
Well guys, keep us up to date
Greetings,
Necturus

[4mykids]

Wow....... that is a NICE colony!!!!!!

Great pictures too.

You are off to a great start with that strong looking colony - enjoy.

[Ashton McStansfieldio]

Hey 4mykids,
nice to meet you and thanks for the nice comments:)
I`ve had problems with this species of ant so I hope I can enjoy them this time!

[kashmir79]

in my opinion kalytta ants shop is way too pricey Antstore sells them at 50* pounds for a colony of 50-100 workers where as on kalytta its 129 Euros i think ! way to pricey