39 replies to this topic

[Wa.Va]

Hi


I really love this forum. I learned alot about species i would probably never keep myself. And i really like to follow the journals here, so i decided to share mine.


I'm from Belgium, so most of my ants are european.

I'm also busy with closed and open eco systems, bio active, mostly plants.(non exotic) one of them has a Lasius Flavus colonie substaining by the tank, together with a Temnothorax nylandri. There is also a Hierodula sp(mantis) living for almost a year now. He eats the woodlice, but I still feed her crickets. (Tank is almost 4 years old) Another has a Lasius niger colony together with a P. regius(jumping spider)
I try to find the harmony between plants and other organism(although some don't come from the same region) and create symbiose inbetween.








At this moment I am the proud owner of

-Pheidole noda: 1 gyne, 100+(or Pheidole indica, I'm still not sure)




- Crematogaster Scutellaris: 1 gyne, 80+ and growing amazingly fast







- Myrmica rubra: 12+ gynes, 200+









- Temnothorax nylandri: 1 gyne, 20+



-polyrhachis dives: 3 gynes, 7+ (newest colonie and growing fast)
Maar

-solenopsis fugax: 5 gynes, no brood yet


-Camponotus aethiops: 1 gyne, no brood yet

Lasius flavus: 6 gynes and brood )


- 5x lasius niger: each with. 1 gyne, 15+ and brood (plan to sell these next year)

Edit: and Messor barbarus, small colony, not really growing.

At this moment al my non exotic species are in sleep.

I made a new outworld for the Polyrhachis dives. Made a little construction out of bamboo, and left pieces of colloured wool and some broken wood and cork. They have another outworld, but not heated, this one is. So i hope they will come out their test tube setup. Now i'm trying tot find the right amount of moist without any condensation so i can view it nicely.

First update,
I hope you like it.

Edited by Wa.Va, November 25 2018 - 10:37 PM.

[Leo]

polyrachis seem to like mealworms in my experience. what exotic species do you have?

[Wa.Va]

polyrachis seem to like mealworms in my experience. what exotic species do you have?

When i got them, the first thing i gave were mealworms. But they didn't touch it. Then i switched to fruit flies and after that crickets. What they really like.

The Polyrhachis dives, Pheidole noda, probably C. aethiops, Crematogaster scutellaris and Messor barbarus are species you can't find in Belgium.

Edited by Wa.Va, November 30 2018 - 10:01 AM.

[Leo]

Cool, I keep a few exotics too. Eh, maybe my polyrachis have a different taste than yours.

Edited by Leo, November 26 2018 - 4:48 AM.

[DaveJay]

Your habitats look great, something to aspire to!

[Wa.Va]

Cool, I keep a few exotics too. Eh, maybe my polyrachis have a different taste than yours.

At the very beginning i was really scared to start with exotics. Especially Crematogaster spp. Because of their fast growth and escape-artistics.

But at this moment stil no escape from all the colonies. (Any day now )

I still have the mealworms, so i will try again and definitly let u know
My mantis likes it. (She likes everything that moves)

[Wa.Va]

Your habitats look great, something to aspire to!

Thnx man! I really appreciate this!

[Wa.Va]

Forgot to upload a picture of my Camponotus aethiops. I found her during nuptial flights in south of France. At that day i could find different flights. Not only Camponotus spp, but also Crematogaster scutellaris, Solenopsis fugax (I really hope to get a big polygine colony out of it, still no brood during this winter), Lasius flavus(same idea, they seem to work together with brood.) and many other.



When i got home, i recieved another suprise. My tank was full of mushrooms. Probably travelled with the mosses. There were different waves. Each time they grew simultaneously. So i know it is just one big fungus.

This was the biggest wave. Sometimes they grew alot smaller.



This is one of the ants habitating these grounds.



Here u have some pics of my wildcaught Myrmica rubra.



These ants were actually my first ants. When I saw this giant (They were spread for around 7 meters.) colony full of healthy queens and brood. I just could not resist.



About a month ago i had a huge pile of death ants. I think its because of the death ratio. I probably brought many old ants back home. And/or not enough brood.
Today i still have the feeling they lose alot of workers. I try to examine if it's maybe parasitic, mites. But i can't spot anything. I luckily never saw evidence of a death queen. Maybe someone can help me further.

[Wa.Va]

Last night, I captured loads of isopods in the big tank. They started to eat the plants and mosses. I saw that they did not really grow anymore, and started to rot. Maybe it is also because there isn't much sunlight anymore, way to cloudly these days. I do know that i have still way to much isopods, but the ones who were crawling and eating while I was looking are gone. At least 30 isopods.
This is the only one with isopods. But I really like to get rid of them.

I prefer a big colony of springtails, because it feeds alot of other organims. They are such a beautifull species.

And perfect in almost any eco system.
A view under the water surface


This is Panamarenko, my mantis, couple of weeks ago she got her wings


(I don't know if this is alowed in this forum)


Hooray, my Polyrhachis dives started with weaving a nest.

At this current moment they still live in a test tube, attached to a small outworld. The outworld is made of a small layer of sand/loam and dirt, rocks, branches and living moss. Definitly enough for this still small colony.

I do have a little 'left over' that I changed into an experimental idea nest.
(If my English is bad, I'm very sorry, it is probably because its not my native language )



What i used is a small construction of bamboo. Attached with little holes. At the left side u will find small pieces of shiny wood, in the middle colored pieces of wool and at the right some small pieces of cork.
I'm not using it at this moment, because I really don't like the acryllic itself. I definitly plan to make a bigger vertical tank. Because i want to make it more arboreal.

But maybe i will attach this, and let this become their first nest(it's heated and ventilated). In another way, it would be funny if this succeed.

What do you think?
Because my experience with P.dives is only.. a month long. So i can use all the help I can get.




I started to clean some of the not yeyt used ytong nests.

Because of the coffee and tea paint containing harmfull chemicals. (E.g cafeïne) (stupid me wanting to do things the faster way without searching info)



This is the nest of the crematogaster. They also have a clean YTong nest they use as a trashbin.

Edited by Wa.Va, November 28 2018 - 12:04 PM.

[Wa.Va]

Feeding time!

Crematogaster scuttelaris





Pheidole noda




This time, I also fed two of the european colonies, because each day I see more movement. And yes

The Myrmica rubra loved a bit of honey and a nice fat cricket



I gave a small one to my Themnotorax nylandri together with some honey


I am so exited about my Polyrhachis dives colony, soon they will definitly double colony size.

They weaved a small 'nest' at the warmest spot in the tube.




Still thinking about what I'm going to make. The other little outworld with the colored wool is already gone.

[Leo]

They will probably cover the entire tube in weaving silk.

[Wa.Va]

I think I will try to put a half a walnut in some branches. And i will heat this. So maybe they will move inside it and use it as their base for the new nest. Then I don't have to put a second outworld for them, yet.

[FSTP]

Not only do you have a wonderful colection of ants. You keep them in really impressive setups.

[Wa.Va]

Not only do you have a wonderful colection of ants. You keep them in really impressive setups.

Thnx. I really love our hobby

[FSTP]

 

Not only do you have a wonderful colection of ants. You keep them in really impressive setups.

Thnx. I really love our hobby

 

 

 

 

You can tell by how much care you put into your enclosures. Its great to see something other then your typical tubes and tubs setup.

[Wa.Va]

Not only do you have a wonderful colection of ants. You keep them in really impressive setups.

Thnx. I really love our hobby

You can tell by how much care you put into your enclosures. Its great to see something other then your typical tubes and tubs setup.

Thnx man, most of my colonies are still in test tube setup tho, Also I still like the idea of watching inside the nest. For most of my natural eco-systems, I can't see for example how much the colonies has grown, if there is stil a queen. Most of the time I have to guess these answers.

[ANTdrew]

I wish I could see your photos! I can’t open the links on my phone, and image hosting sites are blocked on my work computer. Any chance you could post them through the gallery on this forum?

[Wa.Va]

I wish I could see your photos! I can’t open the links on my phone, and image hosting sites are blocked on my work computer. Any chance you could post them through the gallery on this forum?

Did u already tried another browser? Maybe chrome? Because I don't think I also will upload all of these a second time. :(

[Wa.Va]

Bad news. While i was waiting till some eclosing in the Polyrhachis dives colony. I noticed a worker carrying a dead queen. Oh my, one of the 3 queens suddenly died. I really don't know why. And at a closer look i also saw that some cocoons finally has eclosed. But.. they al are winged males..

Does this means my queens are infertile?
Oh no. So maybe I just wait a bit longer till i see some new workers?

I don't really know what to do about this.

[CoolColJ]

Well it does mean one of the queens is infertile...