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Post by UKantz on Apr 25, 2018 16:50:18 GMT
I don't really need any more ant colonies - but I couldn't really help myself as British Ants had ANOTHER one of their price drops -.-. Anyway, I ordered the colony yesterday, so should arrive in the next couple days. They've been ordered to my university address since I'm here for another two months(ish). Though I don't have heat-mats or cables here, this tropical species will be fine in my tiny room; being 3 stories high and having my PC on means the room is baking hot. I will update in due time
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Post by UKantz on Apr 27, 2018 8:48:29 GMT
I am both extremely happy and slightly worried about the colony, which just arrived today; it was advertised on British Ants that there would be around 21-30 workers, which I thought would be manageable to feed and house in their test tube until I returned. However, upon looking at the tube there is EASILY 150+ workers.. I fed them some protein Jelly, and the workers were literally clambering over each other to eat it. I counted 50(ish) workers on the Jelly at the time I'm writing this, but the other 3/4 of the colony is on the other end of the test tube with the queen (presumably, I cannot actually see her under the mass of workers/soldiers). It seems the 19 soldiers (roughly) are doing a good job of protecting her. I think the soldiers of this species are larger than my Noda, probably because they have a longer thorax. The other alarming thing is the number of eggs I've managed to catch a glimpse of; there are 3 rather large clumps that will hatch over the course of the coming months. This wouldn't all be too bad, I've had large colonies housed in test tubes before.. however this one doesn't have a water reservoir, so I've got to figure a way to transfer this colony to a new test tube without tubing in a safe manner. A problem for after they've finished eating I think.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Apr 28, 2018 11:12:14 GMT
I can only suggest taping a clean test tube to the end of the one with no water, but it will require speed to stop ants escaping in vast numbers. You may find that the colony migrate to the new test tube or use both.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 28, 2018 11:52:45 GMT
At least these ones are feeding! Good luck with them.
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Post by UKantz on Apr 28, 2018 17:32:42 GMT
These girls seem interested in just about anything - seeds, dried meal worms and jelly they seem to love!
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Post by UKantz on Apr 29, 2018 15:41:03 GMT
Update on the housing situation. I was very close to doing what wood suggested and taping two tubes together, in hopes that they would move into the fresh tube with water, but this still presented problems; it was rather difficult to feed the colony inside the test tube as there were ants waiting at the entrance constantly. Also, when watching them yesterday I noticed there were usually 3-4 workers constantly pulling on the cotton - from my experience this is usually a sign they need more living space/an outworld. So I decided to buy an emergency nest from Antkit on Amazon (which I had read good things about), and a Ferrero Rocher box as their outworld (I use this for all my ants). The nest arrived today, so I got to work adapting the box. I used a lighter to heat up my keys and melted a hole just smaller than the tubing, then heated the tubing briefly with the lighter to make it more malleable, so it created a snug fit where no small ants can escape. I also used a heated thumb tac to create a few air holes. So yeh, this is their new, less temporary home, which is a lot more fair on the ants in comparison to the test tube .
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Post by UKantz on May 1, 2018 22:01:49 GMT
No sign that they want to move into the acrylic nest yet despite having explored multiple times. They seem pretty content inside their tube for now. One of the cluster of eggs has hatched into many many small larvae, I haven't been under to spot any of the other brood under the worker mass . Some interesting observations to note - so far these have been the least fussy ants I've ever kept; they'll literally eat anything (it's actually kind of strange to watch anything other than Messor eat seeds). They also are very meticulous at cleaning not only themselves, but also each other. I've seen multiple gatherings of maybe a couple workers all "cleaning" a single worker, and even cases where they'll hang off the top of the tube while other workers clean them. This especially happens when I return an escaped worker, all her sisters go and clean her and give her extra attention for a while.
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Post by UKantz on May 15, 2018 17:23:54 GMT
Quick update: I had to remove the acrylic nest, as there was a slight gap between the tube and their outworld, so I just plugged it up with cotton for now. These gals are doing great - I had a look inside their test tube today and saw a couple pupae, so the mass of larvae are onto their final stage of development! I gave them two spiders today to feast on to get the rest of the larvae over the hurdle
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Post by UKantz on May 28, 2018 9:46:39 GMT
Unfortunately quite a lot of the colonies workers have been dying off at recent, they have been receiving insects and sugar water/protein jelly every couple of days, so maybe I need to amp up the food supply. Most of the larvae have pupated now though, so soon hopefully there will be a new workforce to replace the previous generation.
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Post by UKantz on May 31, 2018 9:51:58 GMT
More workers are continuing to die off. This morning I found the first soldier in the graveyard . It's starting to dawn on me this a similar crisis I had with my Pheidole noda colony.
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Post by UKantz on Jun 10, 2018 11:00:12 GMT
I've moved this colony into a new sand/soil based set up that I made for them yesterday. Most of the pupae have eclosed now, bringing the worker count back to around its original numbers. Unfortunately I think the mass death may have been too much for the queen, as she seems very lifeless and the workers just drag her around most of the time. Though there are eggs with some of the workers, I'm not sure if the queen is alive.
Currently they're excavating a new nest for themselves, so I will update soon.
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Post by UKantz on Jun 11, 2018 11:18:52 GMT
I did a rough estimate and I believe there are between 150-200 workers in this colony now, with 10 soldiers. Almost all of the pupae have eclosed now, though there is a small lot of larvae of various sizes and a few clutches of eggs. Thankfully, the queen seems to be okay, as she waves her antenna around every once in a while, so I'll stop shining a torch at their nest and let them get on with digging for now
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