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Post by TenebrousNova on Jul 27, 2015 23:52:43 GMT
Sorry to hear about the L.flavus queens. Was the colony still living in their test tube? Even so, I'm surprised the spider was able to get past the workers and abduct them.
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shane
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Post by shane on Jul 28, 2015 0:11:11 GMT
Sorry to hear about the L.flavus queens. Was the colony still living in their test tube? Even so, I'm surprised the spider was able to get past the workers and abduct them. No they was living fine in moss, but a spider got to them
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Post by elitzchupa on Jul 28, 2015 11:42:30 GMT
The same thing happened to my very first Lasius niger queen.
I placed her in a put with soil and left the lid off to watch her dig, I went out for around 2 hours and came back to find her lifeless between a spiders jaws.
I have to admit I got revenge and killed the spider out of frustration.
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Post by occultus on Apr 10, 2016 20:27:04 GMT
I'm very saddened to hear that your Bullet Ant queen has passed away. They are very difficult to start with from a single queen. My bullet ant nearly had trouble by getting stuck inside the holes of her plant pot last night. I've nearly had her for a year and she has only 1 egg. Nearly had a worker but she decided to eat her during the cocoon stage.
More of the queens have appeared on the market lately with workers already established.
I hope you feel better soon mate.
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shane
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Post by shane on Apr 10, 2016 20:42:10 GMT
I'm very saddened to hear that your Bullet Ant queen has passed away. They are very difficult to start with from a single queen. My bullet ant nearly had trouble by getting stuck inside the holes of her plant pot last night. I've nearly had her for a year and she has only 1 egg. Nearly had a worker but she decided to eat her during the cocoon stage. More of the queens have appeared on the market lately with workers already established. I hope you feel better soon mate. I'm still really puzzled, Its also a possibly she could have got egg-bound with not laying any eggs like bird or other egg laying animals
Her set up seems fine I checked over and over.
I may have to try a dry set up for there arena next time ut not to desert like dry just so it don't steam up as much.
Yes with a queen a lone it maybe more then hard to get started but at least your queen is laying eggs fine so she won't get egg bound as which it seems happened to my queen.
Hope she has workers your queen as I think once she gets a worker then your colony will soon set off.
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Post by occultus on Apr 10, 2016 20:58:25 GMT
I've recently been speaking to a few of the German keepers. They tell me to keep the set up moist for the humidity but you must allow for plenty of ventilation as the queens apparently don't like it stuffy. I have not long changed my outworld to have plenty of air holes.
You know I'm considering purchasing a larger second colony just to brood boost Pandora and get her started. Very expensive proposition though.
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shane
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Post by shane on Apr 10, 2016 21:18:56 GMT
I've recently been speaking to a few of the German keepers. They tell me to keep the set up moist for the humidity but you must allow for plenty of ventilation as the queens apparently don't like it stuffy. I have not long changed my outworld to have plenty of air holes. You know I'm considering purchasing a larger second colony just to brood boost Pandora and get her started. Very expensive proposition though. mine has plenty of ventilation just at times it can steam up on sides of glass as some cold nights make it more worse then others when temp drops a little.
I was going to consider nest a little moist and out world a little dry but she never settled in nest just out world
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Post by Jenny on Apr 11, 2016 5:47:24 GMT
Very sad Shane and an expensive loss
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Post by Wood~Ant on Apr 11, 2016 7:47:27 GMT
Sorry to hear of this sad loss, as she would have cost you a lot to buy. One of the problems with having a single queen is waiting for them to raise their first workers, but her sudden death will always leave you wondering what went wrong as she seemed healthy enough.
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Post by Black Ant on Apr 11, 2016 8:25:27 GMT
Very sad news mate, so sorry to read about the death of your bullet ant queen.
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shane
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Post by shane on Apr 11, 2016 19:31:59 GMT
Sorry to hear of this sad loss, as she would have cost you a lot to buy. One of the problems with having a single queen is waiting for them to raise their first workers, but her sudden death will always leave you wondering what went wrong as she seemed healthy enough. I'm more puzzled then anything what went wrong, All I can think off that she may have got egg bound, No problems with set up and other stuff , Food was fine water too.
If I try again with them I would have to have a queen with at least 2 or more workers, A lone queen if she's not laying after at least a week could be a problem with this species as in wild queens join up and help one another till worker force start to kill off queens till there's only 1.
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Post by Thebugman on Apr 12, 2016 18:00:17 GMT
Terrible news. Sorry to hear about this I was looking forward to seeing more of your amazing photos of this species. I try to avoid buying queens alone, because things can go wrong too easily. I think that one of the main reasons ants produce so many alates is that some are simply not fit enough to survive or can not adapt to new situations, such as captivity. I collected 5 Crematogaster queens from Cyprus last year, put them in the same test-tubes in the same drawer. Only 1 is left alive, she managed to produce 2 workers but they died after a few days. I am hopeful for her, as she has larvae now. She doesn't seem to care when I feed her; she will happily run out, drink honeywater and scatter back in her test-tube. I think you may have been a bit unlucky with the queen you got, and don't let it put you off trying again if it isn't too painful on the wallet.
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shane
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Post by shane on Apr 12, 2016 22:39:33 GMT
Terrible news. Sorry to hear about this I was looking forward to seeing more of your amazing photos of this species. I try to avoid buying queens alone, because things can go wrong too easily. I think that one of the main reasons ants produce so many alates is that some are simply not fit enough to survive or can not adapt to new situations, such as captivity. I collected 5 Crematogaster queens from Cyprus last year, put them in the same test-tubes in the same drawer. Only 1 is left alive, she managed to produce 2 workers but they died after a few days. I am hopeful for her, as she has larvae now. She doesn't seem to care when I feed her; she will happily run out, drink honeywater and scatter back in her test-tube. I think you may have been a bit unlucky with the queen you got, and don't let it put you off trying again if it isn't too painful on the wallet. I may try again with them as I have a nice set up which they should be fine in. Also my other ant colony's are just non stop growing.
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