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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 11, 2019 3:17:41 GMT
I have just ordered a Pheidole noda mated Queen with 30-50 workers,it should arrive on Tuesday with any luck,I already have a nest/outworld combi,although I have a suspicious feeling they will attempt to escape when I transfer them,as there is not enough room in the outworld to lay the test tube,so I am envisioning lots of bites lol,this week I am also attempting to make my own ytong nest for the first time,if all goes well I will make two,I'll be following this video for instructions,good thing I have a multi tool like the dremel already.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 11, 2019 16:52:04 GMT
I wish you the best of luck with this species. I've tried them before and sadly I couldn't get them to eat anything at all.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 11, 2019 22:17:18 GMT
Thanks,yes I've read quiet a few cases of them being difficult to feed,also I've read that they have a tendency to drown themselves in water feeders by digging their way through the cotton wool,all I can do is try them on many different types of food,unfortunately my local pet store only sells live crickets and live meal worms,so thank goodness for online shops,I'll try them on the usual but there are other things I could try like springtails,fruits,seeds are easy to come by has I have budgies,honey of course,I'll even try them on peas,if the worst comes to the worst I'll offer them a pinkie and see how they go with that,although I'll refuse to stand there and watch them if it comes to that,I can even offer them egg both raw and cooked,as for the water situation I'll build a very shallow pond and fill it with moss,so they maybe will be happy just drinking water of the moss and it will act as a spongy carpet for them,as I'm guessing if I add enough it will soak all the water up,so hopefully no chance of drowned ants.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 12, 2019 2:47:00 GMT
According to this video I found they are meat eaters,they seem to like there steak extra rare.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 12, 2019 11:45:45 GMT
Well they arrived today,at first I thought they had all died in transit,but as soon as they warmed up they became very active,it took me about half an hour to transport them into their new outworld,having to stop to catch escapees and put them back in,lucky these girls are so tiny that I don't think they could bite my fingers even if they tried,I was sent I'd say about 40 workers at a guess,they move that fast it's hard to tell,I have about seven majors which have the big heads,I also spotted the queen or at least I think it's the queen it was as big as the majors but it was normal head size,as soon as I started putting them in a brave little ant found the nest and proceeded to check it out,it wasn't long before others followed and the queen ant was ushered in with an entourage of workers,after I got them in I then gave them a welcome gift of a meal worm which I cut in half,as I watched about ten of them feasted on the head half of the mealworm I didn't realize that some other workers had dragged the other half into the nest part where it was being feasted on by even more workers,I also found one of the meal worm was pupating into it's final stage,the workers had a few goes of this but I feel it's too strong for them so now I don't know what to do with it,I didn't envision myself breeding mealworms,anyway thank goodness I don't have to feed them pinkies or steak,I am well aware though that some small workers have scouted the nest and outworld for escape routes so I'll have to keep checking to see if the numbers are going down or not,till I get them a better nest and outworld,I didn't notice any brood but they are so tiny I may have missed seeing any.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 12, 2019 23:27:41 GMT
Just a quick update,I saw one of the small workers carrying what looked like either a bit of mealworm or eggs,I'm guessing eggs by the shape so three eggs,they are pretty brutal ants,I put another two halves of a mealworm inside in case they wanted more only to find they had pulled out the mealworms insides,but then left then laying in the out world,so I remove them,they have taken up residence in the two chambers of the nest nearest the entrance to the out world and seem to be resting on the actual walls of the nest although I feel that this is their way of making sure their queen is defended from all sides and hidden from view,I try to minimize the light in the room they are kept as strong light seems to make them more active, where as natural light they seem okay with,also I have used Vaseline around the top of the out world to try and reduce any escape attempts until I can get some fluon,hopefully this will work.So now they are less active,probably conserving energy for tomorrow when no doubt they will still be looking for any escape routes lol.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 13, 2019 12:26:28 GMT
It looks like I was sent two queens either by accident or generosity,I saw one queen surrounded by soldiers in one chamber of the nest,then to my surprise I saw a soldier maneuvering another queen into the chamber,so that was a surprise as I only paid for a one queen colony,they have chosen the chamber nearest the hydrating side of the nest for the brood,another chamber for their dead although there is only one dead worker so far,unfortunately I have noticed a few spots of green in the nest,so I am worried that mold is starting to form,also I find myself over run with mealworm,the new ones are larger and fatter,these were bought on ebay,and there is 250 of them,definitely too many for my ants,so it looks like the robins that visit my garden are going to be offered live mealworms otherwise by the time my ants get through them they will have grown into beetles.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 14, 2019 10:18:13 GMT
I offered them seeds which apart from one worker they promptly ignored,so much for the theory that they eat seeds,as soon as they knew I was there a few small workers came out to see if I had left them anything,so again I offered them some mealworm,I've left them to it but not before noticing that they can now climb up to the lid,so I am guessing that the Vaseline has dried
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Post by Wood~Ant on Feb 14, 2019 11:03:04 GMT
From what I've read about this species, it appears to be basically monogynous, so it will be interesting to see if they retain both queens. Other species in the same genus can be either monogyn or polygyn, so I hope you will have good luck keeping your colony with 2 queens.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 14, 2019 13:24:41 GMT
I have watched a video where small workers killed one queen of a two queen colony but it turned out the queen was not fertile,they held her outstretched by her legs and wouldn't let her move,after she had died it seemed they were mourning her death,I can only think they killed her because she was not a productive member of the colony,it was sad to see it happen though,I need to invest in a macro lens camera to really see what is going on as these ants are rather small,although I couldn't miss them gathering round a bit of cotton wool I'd dabbed in honey water,even the soldiers came out of the nest to get some,this is the first time that the soldiers have left the nest.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 16, 2019 13:44:43 GMT
I am not sure how many eggs or larva my colony has, as the queen is always totally surrounded by soldiers and workers,they tend to just use one chamber and it's still the chamber nearest the exit to the arena, I did out of interest put a bit of forest type substrate into the arena and a few workers started carrying bits of it to one of the unused back chambers until a soldier stepped in and started carrying it back to the entrance of the arena. Now they've used it to block off the actual entrance hole, although the nest may be a bit big for them they have moved any litter they had in the nest to a corner in the arena, so now they have an official dumping area.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 16, 2019 18:15:53 GMT
I just managed to spot some brood in the chamber,I am not sure how they will go on though as the temperature in the room has dropped by a few centigrade due to the radiator not working properly although I do have a very small heat mat,I don't want to cook them by accident and the lower heat level hasn't slowed them down.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 18, 2019 10:38:56 GMT
I put a three watt heat mat under the nest arena to compensate for the temperature drop only for the nest to form condensation, which is a big worry for me as the workers are so tiny there is a chance of them drowning, plus the eggs and larva. The ants have been trying to put substrate on the condensation to dry it out, but they are having a lot of trouble as there is a lot of condensation. I have decided that in future I will use just heat lamps. Anyway I have a very small fish tank which I've had for ages, too small to keep fish in but just the right size for ants. I'll have to make a lid for it but I'll be buying some indoor potting soil and getting a few stones, then I'll put the nest in and let the ants decide whether to move in or not, I'll be doing that today.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 18, 2019 18:04:30 GMT
Okay I ended up not using the tank an opted for a clear plastic storage container instead which was a lot cheaper than the tank,but much larger,I drilled a hole in the middle of the lid,slowly making it bigger,I put a decent amount of soil in,and placed a stone in one of the sides making sure that one of the sides of the stone there was a gap between the stone and soil,because the condensation was bad in the nest I couldn't even view the ants properly to see if they were still alive or not,so I unscrewed the top,all was still until suddenly ants came pouring out of the nest,luckily I managed to put the nest into the new set up before any managed to escape or climb on me,I put them in the new set up,and noticed a small worker venture out to investigate the new place and it didn't take her long to find the stone of course noticing the mealworm I left on top,she then went back to the nest visiting every chamber slowly collecting more workers,taking them to see this stone.The soldiers of course stayed by the queen/s (still not sure where I have one or two)side,last time I checked most of the nest is deserted so I have left them in a dark quiet room,but from what I viewed the stone is a bit hit.
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Post by 1moldavite on Feb 19, 2019 11:58:45 GMT
My colony have set up their nest under the stone as far as I'm aware,I say this because now and again I have seen a worker climb out from under the stone onto the top which is where I place the mealworm,I have no intent on checking as I don't want to disturb them again,one thing I did notice was a bit of condensation against the side of the arena under the soil,so my ants are going to get some domestic cleaners in e.g. springtails just in case of mold forming as they will eat mold and also left over food,I did think about introducing woodlice,but I read somewhere that if they get the chance they will eat ants eggs and I definitely don't want that to happen.
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