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Post by celtikah on Jun 13, 2014 18:13:56 GMT
I purchased a single Ytong Formicarium and a Formica lemani queen from zoomzoomluke, and today it arrived. The Formicarium is amazing quality! And it was less than half the price of some others I have seen, so I am more than happy with my purchase. The queen arrived full of life, with 1 worker and 1 brood (if there are any eggs I have not seen them yet). The speed on them is insane, they are a LOT more active than the L.niger I previously had. My only peeve is that it might take a fair while for the colony to get started up. But maybe thats just part of the fun? I'm trying to find out how often they lay eggs, and how many at a time, how long they take from egg to worker, what happens when the colony reaches maximum capacity (do they self regulate?) and if they have the ability to produce more queens if needed. My set-up is fairly straight forward (as seen below) Lukes Formicarium comes with two ports. On one end you can see the test tube they arrived in (amazingly well packaged I might add). To encourage them into their nest I decided to attach a small length of hose to the test tube, and the other to the port, and I raised the test tube up at an angle, and put it under the light. I then covered the nest in darkness and relied on ants natural instinct to burrow, and it worked! within an hour they had gone under I'm leaving the tube there for another 24-48 hours or so until I am convinced they have transferred everything over. After this, I plan on using the rubber from an end of a pencil to bung/block off the port. On the other port, I have made a makeshift foraging area. I wish it were more elaborate, but hey, it's a DIY job! It's just an old Tupperware sandwich box, and I have a brown cricket in there, along with a little jar that has a cotton pad on it. the pad hs been soaked in water, with a drop of honey in the middle. My next step is to try and find a nice foraging area for them, and maybe decorate it (suggestions more than welcome!!!) and just watch how they develop The cocoon seems to be in quite late development, so I'm hoping the worker will break free soon! I'm also trying to find a bit of a heavier set-up. My cat seems awfully interested in them, and he could probably fairly easily swat the formicarium off the dresser. I have not mentioned to my girlfriend that these are able to sting/bite and am hoping she will never find out either!!! All comments/suggestions/advice are more than welcome
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Post by celtikah on Jun 14, 2014 12:19:51 GMT
Well I had a quick peek today, and it seems like the queen is getting more comfortable! Something odd happened which I did not expect. I assumed that the queen would want to keep brood and Cocoons etc close to her at all time, but they have actually placed the cocoon a few chambers away? If we were to number the chambers as so:
--1--2--3--4-- P-5--6--7--8-P --9--10-11-12--
The queen and her worker originally sat in chamber 5 along with their cocoon. But strangely, the cocoon is now sitting in chamber 2, while the queen and worker remain in chamber 5.
Is anybody to explain why this is? or is it just they chose this chamber as a convenient spot.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jun 14, 2014 13:28:34 GMT
What does the "P" represent?
The adults may pick up the brood later unless they've forgotten where they left it.
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Post by celtikah on Jun 14, 2014 14:36:02 GMT
What does the "P" represent? The adults may pick up the brood later unless they've forgotten where they left it. I should have explained I guess, I was just too lazy to edit it in paint P stands for Pipe/Port. I'll check on them later (honestly, I can't stop watching them!) One thing I have noticed, is the worker seems to interact with the queen a lot more than my L.niger did, they are very often touching antenna! The cricket I placed for them is a fair distance away from where they are nesting though, as you can see from the pictures. I only hope that the worker finds it and begins bringing some protein back for Queenie to stop her eating eggs instead!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2014 16:19:57 GMT
I hope this colony goes well for you
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Post by celtikah on Jun 14, 2014 17:46:31 GMT
Thanks atta My concern is gone for now - I actually saw the worker tending to the cocoon, which is great! My next news is going to be a race between either my next worker emerging, or my queen beginning to lay. Which will it be? ;p I purchased a micro-lens kit for my phone so I can hope to take some better shots.
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Post by celtikah on Jun 15, 2014 12:25:46 GMT
No eggs.
I asked somebody about it because I began getting impatient, and was advised that I might need to make it 'easier' for them to find some honey water in the nest, to encourage egg production. Maybe as there is only 1 worker they are unwilling to travel to the food I placed for them?
I cleaned out the test tube they came in, then put in some honey water and blocked it off with some cotton and then placed it back on one of the ports. I have not actually seen them take any yet, but I noticed the worker was 'kissing' the queen. I'm assuming/hoping that he found the honey water and was regurgitating it into her mouth? Is anybody able to confirm it?
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jun 15, 2014 12:38:23 GMT
Sounds like trophallaxis to me, but for her to produce eggs she also needs protein as honey or sugar only supplies energy to adult ants.
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Post by celtikah on Jun 15, 2014 12:42:39 GMT
Sounds like trophallaxis to me, but for her to produce eggs she also needs protein as honey or sugar only supplies energy to adult ants. I'm really stuck in that case. I DO have protein in there in the form of a brown cricket, but they don't seem to be venturing far to it. I have protein whey powder from my bodybuilding, would it be worth mixing that in with some honey-water to produce a sort of all-in-one tonic EDIT: No worries. Things in life have a way of working themselves out Swatted a large fly and placed it in the test tube in front of the honey water
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2014 13:28:57 GMT
Honey is about 0.3% protein and while its not suitable as a main source of food for larvae, the carbohydrate in the form of sugars combined with a variety of other minerals and the small amount of protein, it provides an easy source of food. If the queen has more energy she is more likely to produce eggs.
Sugar water on the other hand has zero protein and almost zero minerals as it's too refined.
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Post by Zarbi on Jun 15, 2014 13:51:34 GMT
Try mixing the yolk of a hard boiled egg into a paste with honey, but you need to watch out for mould growth and remove it if it starts to grow fungus or mould over it. You can also add this to melted beef gelatine which you can buy from most supermarkets.
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Post by celtikah on Jun 16, 2014 7:49:57 GMT
Try mixing the yolk of a hard boiled egg into a paste with honey, but you need to watch out for mould growth and remove it if it starts to grow fungus or mould over it. You can also add this to melted beef gelatine which you can buy from most supermarkets. Thanks! Thats quite a good idea actually. I did check on my fly and it looks like that has tempted it. I don't want to feed them from the tube long term though. I'm hoping that once She has a few more workers they will be willing to travel further for food. In the meantime, flies will fit in the tube, and some of the smaller crickets (I may have to cut bits off them, but I don't think they mind) Still no eggs that I can see. They now have an easy to access protein source,food source and they are in a quiet dark place that is well hydrated. Not sure what more I can do! I guess it's just a waiting game for now.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2014 10:46:53 GMT
I assume they have died out as you have not updated in 3 month.
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