15 replies to this topic

[Zeiss]

23-3-2019

Here I show you the two colonies I have had for a while that I got from dspdrew.  They started out as queens with a little bit of donor fungus I think?  I can't remember.  I keep them at ambient room temperature, which ranges from 70-74F in my apartment.  They're tucked into a cabinet I have specifically for ant use, so they're always in the dark.  I have nothing to measure the humidity in the chambers, so no values there.

This first set of images are from my best colony:

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This next is from the other:

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The second queen ended up dying after bringing her fungus garden back from almost going completely dead.  Her first round of workers died while the fungus was going downhill, so she probably died from exhaustion of growing it and then getting a bunch of brood reared to pupae.  The following pictures are of me putting her fungus into the other colony's chamber:

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They didn't take care of the fungus for a few days, but they did take the pupae and brood almost immediately for their own piles of brood.  After a bit of waiting, they finally started taking care of the newly added fungus and a bunch of pupae started to eclose.

Edited by Zeiss, September 18 2019 - 12:14 AM.

[Antking117]

These types of ants are so fascinating. I cannot wait for someone within the forum to have a large colony to share.

[Zeiss]

These types of ants are so fascinating. I cannot wait for someone within the forum to have a large colony to share.

I love them as well.  This is the first time I've had a colony grow to this size after the past few years of trying.

[Antking117]

 

These types of ants are so fascinating. I cannot wait for someone within the forum to have a large colony to share.

I love them as well.  This is the first time I've had a colony grow to this size after the past few years of trying.

 

When did you get these?

[Zeiss]

When did you get these?

I got them in September of last year, I think.

[TennesseeAnts]

The closest thing I can get to these is Trachymyrmex.

[MegaMyrmex]

That, my friend, is a lot of ants you will have in a few weeks.

[Zeiss]

That, my friend, is a lot of ants you will have in a few weeks.

They've already started to eclose and it's nice seeing all the workers.  Still plenty left as pupae.

[TennesseeAnts]

Are those Drew's leaf cutter nests? If so, do you think they would work for Trachymyrmex?

[Zeiss]

Are those Drew's leaf cutter nests? If so, do you think they would work for Trachymyrmex?

They are, if Trachymyrmex grow their fungus the same style as Acromyrmex, then I would say they might work.

[Zeiss]

18-9-2019

So it's been a while since I've updated, as per Zeiss tradition. 

 

I'm down to just one colony of my Acromyrmex versicolor and it's doing pretty well.  I've been keeping them in the low 70^oF range for the most part with some days getting up to the low 80^oF range.  It's lower than most people keep, which keeps them growing more slowly, but it seems like I have more consistent fungal growth.

 

As one could guess, with the slower fungal growth, there are more dead workers along the way.  In their outworld they have a pile of dead workers on top of dirt they removed from the fungus chamber.  I feed them dried culinary grade rose petals and cichlid fish food pellets for their main source of food with an occasional harvester seed mix.  

 

Speaking of dirt, they began to excavate and shape the dirt in their chamber.  I'm not able to get great pictures, so this is the best I could do for some of the entry holes.  I'm not quite sure what they keep in there.

 

And to end this update, here is a picture of the queen on some of the hanging fungus.

 

[antsandmore]

update? I know this journal didn't have an update for a long time but...

Edited by antsandmore, February 12 2021 - 10:35 AM.

[Zeiss]

update? I know this journal didn't have an update for a long time but...

Yeah, I should get better at updating stuff.  I'm super lazy, haha.  They're still going.  Over they winter they had a fungus die-off, so now they're growing it all back.

[antsandmore]

 

update? I know this journal didn't have an update for a long time but...

Yeah, I should get better at updating stuff.  I'm super lazy, haha.  They're still going.  Over they winter they had a fungus die-off, so now they're growing it all back.

 

nice! I thought you didn't update because they died, but not the case! thanks 

[Zeiss]

 

Yeah, I should get better at updating stuff.  I'm super lazy, haha.  They're still going.  Over they winter they had a fungus die-off, so now they're growing it all back.

nice! I thought you didn't update because they died, but not the case! thanks 

I'll actually try to update sometime soon if I don't forget to.  Feel free to just bump this to remind me if you want.  I'll get an email notification.

[mmcguffi]

...bump?