Keeping Temnothorax unifasciatus

[bobdol]

Hey all,

I've been thinking about buying a colony of Temnothorax unifasciatus from Ant Store and was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with these ants.
Is it true that they can be kept in a set up with another ant colony?

I was planning on having a set up with an Ant world ant farm containing a Lasius niger colony attached too 2 20x10x10 basin on each side with a gravel/sand base ( 1 on each side of the ant world ant farm) and then, a 3rd basin containing an acorn nest in which the Temnothorax unifasciatus can live in. The 3rd basin would be attached to one of the Lasius Niger foraging tanks so, the ants are all in one set up but the different colonies are 1 basin apart.

Does anyone think this is a good or bad Idea?

Thanks.

[Jenny]

I wouldn't like to trust nigers with this species. Firstly this species is tiny just like the Temnothorax nylanderi we kept some time ago. Nigers are likely to pinch all the food and leave the other colony with nothing, mainly because we found the Temnothorax are not very good at foraging.

Ant Store are on the same lines, cannot be trusted if you want good healthy stock and reliability

[myrmica4ever]

Does that mean there are 2 Lasius niger colonys? If so bad idea if not it could work, in theory, perhaps a diagram would be easier to understand.

[bobdol]

Thanks for the feedback!

I will make a little diagram to explain a bit better

There is 1 Laisus Niger colony and 1 Temnothorax colony.



A = Ant world
B = Foraging Basin
C = Temnothorax unifasciatus Basin
-- =Tubing

A will contain the Laisus Niger and C would contain the Temnothorax

The set up would look like this

B--A--B--C

I'm planning on getting a large temnothorax colony (50-100 workers) and the Niger colony is only a queen with some eggs at the moment.

So I would of thought with a large foraging area like this and a large colony of temnothorax they would be ok?

And couldn't I drop food nice and close to their nest so the nigers will not steal it?

Could this not work at all.... ?

I'm really keen to try this, sorry if it seems foolhardy:D

Thanks