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Post by Joona on Aug 4, 2014 12:13:54 GMT
Lol I would love them to get that big, but it would take a lot of fungus to sustain them. With my new set up crowd control will not be an issue because they can only grow as big as the tank there in.
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Post by Joona on Aug 3, 2014 19:16:10 GMT
Yes mate it is the 20th of september. cannot believe how much they have changed in a year.
I went to a local garden centre today to get some protein pots for the Atta and sadly saw that there colony of Acromyrymex had failed, they had damp tissue around what little fungus was left but there were no workers foraging and none visible on the tissue or fungus. Quite sad as at one point they were creating winged males and females last summer.
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Post by Joona on Aug 2, 2014 14:01:55 GMT
Its hard to tell every time I count them they move.
I'd estimate its well in the 10,000+ area now and soldiers are nearly in triple figures.
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Post by Joona on Aug 2, 2014 7:45:13 GMT
Thanks mate, this way I do not get many escapes now. Although as Adam said there crafty and build bridges out of leaves to try and beat my moat system lol. I have found my heater and pump from my old fish tank so hopefull some water movement will make the leaves sink or worse case make the ants boats to do laps of the tank! Oh by the way mate, we had a private sexing scan on the baby and its a girl
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Post by Joona on Aug 1, 2014 20:17:24 GMT
I'll be taking the kids over the summer holiday so I'll get a few pics to give you an idea of what I mean.
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Post by Joona on Jul 31, 2014 20:33:43 GMT
No Rj that wasnt for you matey, you by now will know what your up against lol. Ok well I did the move, it was horrible and I never want to do it again. I'm not joking either my living room floor was crawling I have been bitten everywhere I can think of by every size ant in the colony appart from soldiers and the queen (who is alive and well by the way). I basically did a open the tank doors and tip the fungus in kind of thing followed by 20 mins to half hour of being bitten and running after ants. The fungus looked healthy and full to the brim of ants and pupating ants. After I connected the tanks up they were soon bringing leaves back and adding them and I'm quite looking forward to seeing the fungus taking shape in its much larger tank. Adam have you ever been to twycross zoo mate? They have a great set up in one of the cafe's by the old entrace. Its basically what I have done but much larger scale. I'm thinking of making a glass incubator that will hold my exo terra and create a big moat with heated water to get the temps and humidity right. Heres a few pics of the sort out: 1st tub dumped An old friend Still chewing leaves, even though I was evicting them Bursting with new ants Even more in another tub !! All in can you spot the escapees? Close up of the new home. Sunday I'm getting the items I need to finish the build and make it look nice ect as it looks like a half filled fish tank with walking leaves lol. Hope you like the pics and update. Mark
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Post by Joona on Jul 31, 2014 11:49:53 GMT
Things are not going well in Atta land, I may have shrunk there fungus a bit too much as larvae and pupae are everywhere on the fungus! I also noticed that they had almost chewed through one of the connecting pipes and decided my food container with leafs in was a great place to start another garden! I have had to take drastic action yesterday I made a moat style set up for feeding them and tonight when I Finish work I'm going to move all the gardens into the out world and connect the two tanks. Its sadly to much to keep them under control and literally in there tanks. Over the summer I'll work on a bigger set up but I'm using water to stop them escaping, I'm thinking something like deansie's set up for his Acros but on a bigger scale. Hopefully ill get some pics tonight for you.
Anyone thinking about getting these ants has no Idea what there capable of, a great species to watch but a nightmare to look after lol.
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Post by Joona on Jul 8, 2014 15:10:59 GMT
The smaller workers are ok they do not stray far from the nest and do not bite, well they do but its only as bad as a Lasius niger. The media workers on the other hand leg it! And I have found them in our conservatory . Even with my limiting of the leaves the fungus looks healthy the tops are nice and grey, I'm just trying to stop them from building any more for the time being.
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Post by Joona on Jul 8, 2014 14:40:06 GMT
Hey all, thought it was time for a update on the Attas and I'm pleased to say things have been productive. They now have four fungus gardens filling tubs, how ever this has had a small knock on effect that there are around 10 - 15,000 workers and around the 100 mark for soldiers. Escapers are now becoming a problem, the smallest cast of workers can fit through the mesh on top and boy do they .
Soldiers now wander around the out world which can be a problem at feeding times as they hover around the doors just waiting to pounce on you. I also decided to clean the out world out and as promised I did get a video but I sadly cannot post it as I got bitten and end up swearing quite a lot. I will tell you that drowning them doesn't work too well. I filled the out world with water to the top and left it 10 minutes I thought that would of done it but sadly I was wrong. I drained the water and tipped the substrate and leaf fragments in to my garden waste bin. Upon cutting the grass the following day I was greeted by a bin full of alive and well Atta's digging tunnels and actually cutting leaf fragments and a nice big soldier sat on my bin lid! (The sudden drop in temperature did finish them off after a few days).
Due to the sheer numbers I have had to take action now to limit the colony size, I do not quite like the idea of killing an entire garden so I decided to limit the amount of leaves that I give them, I have put a large food container in the out world that I fill up with leaves daily, this takes them around 6-8 hours to cut. There have also been a increase in dying workers I'm unsure if there being killed or dying of old age but there are some bright orange heads in there which would indicate there killing off excess workers.
Its sad I have to shrink the colony a bit and I feel guilty but with silly work shifts and the good news that me and Lisa are expecting our third child the Atta have had to take the back foot for a while. If things get worse I'm afraid I will have to consider donating them to a zoo or such or selling them. Hopefully it will not come to this.
Next update I'll post some pics.
Mark
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Post by Joona on Jun 26, 2014 19:45:14 GMT
It was a new one only eclosed a few days ago.
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Post by Joona on Jun 26, 2014 17:08:11 GMT
26-06-14 Sadly my little worker has died the queen still has lots of life in her and a few more ants are beginning to enclose now, along with a large pile of eggs and a few larvae so fingers crossed. Mark
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Post by Joona on Jun 22, 2014 10:09:26 GMT
22-6-14 Upon checking the queen this morning I noticed her first worker has appeard. I have put seeds in and a few dead meal worms as well as honey. I'll also drop some chicken in too this afternoon. Mark
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Post by Joona on Jun 11, 2014 18:48:55 GMT
Just an update with the pics Ill post some more when she gets her workers which hopefully shouldnt be long. Mark
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Post by Joona on Jun 11, 2014 15:34:34 GMT
Nice vid matey, the set up looks great.
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Post by Joona on Jun 11, 2014 12:56:38 GMT
I have decided to try to start yet another Messor colony, my first try ended in a fail after hibernating them in my shed, my second attempt went even worse and ended with no workers left alive. I do still have the queen but she hasn't laid for months now and I believe its a matter of time before she dies.
So here goes my third try!
10-6-14
I received my queen that I ordered from queen ant shop, I must of miss read as I was expecting workers but there were none, there are a large number of larvae and a nice size clutch of eggs in there with a lovely red headed queen who is very active. I covered her test tube with foil and have put her on the shelf above my Atta set up. I will move her tube to a tub when the first workers appear to make feeding easier.
I'll post some pics when I get home from work too.
Fingers crossed third time lucky. Mark
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