9 replies to this topic

[gaurangpanchal]

I have a Camponotus Pennsylvanicus Queen. She is in a test-tube setup. I use a heating cable and the 1st nanitic hatched in a little over a month of egg-laying. After the nanitc was born, I kept the test-tube in a box with sand (to prevent rolling) and then fed the queen and nanitic a micro-drop of honey which they quickly cleaned up.

 

Now, over the past month they have been in that setup. I fed them a cricket leg after the honey drop and they sucked it bone dry. I was happy to see them accepting food and being relatively active. What is bothering me now is that the queen and nanitic have grown increasingly shy and timid over the month's time. They always stay deep inside and only accept food when it was placed inside the tube with the help of a tweezer. I imagined the test-tube was too open and that's what made them feel insecure so I plugged it whenever I wasn't feeding them and they instantly moved to the heating cable near the dry cotton and whenever the test-tube was open, they scurried back to the back of the tube. Their pile of brood is not growing or developing (I am guessing this is because they're always kept near the wet cotton whenever they're scared and not where the brood would develop better, like near the heating cable).

 

I have seem many people report that when they moved their queen and nanitics to a founding formicarium (like the THA Minihearh) their queen and nanitics became active and increased their appetite and the brood developed quicker. Should I move the queen, nanitic, and the brood to a founding formicarium?

 

If so, which one should I go for? THA Minihearth III or Aus Ants Acrylic Starter Kit or Aus Ants Ytong Starter Kit

 

Sorry for the long post. Thank you for reading and thanks for your response in advance.

 

[Silq]

For my Pogonomyrmex, they rip up cotton and block out the test tube entrance. I have my Camponotus in a different setup so I don't know if that would work but you can possibly rip up some cotton and see if they move it to the entrance. Why not move the heating cable closer towards the pile of brood? They may keep the brood away from the heating cable if it is too hot. What is warm to us might be hot to them or vice versa. Do you have anyway to gauge the humidity and temperature like a hygrometer? As for moving them, I wouldn't know but I would not since that would probably stress them out more. If you had more workers and they forced and helped the queen to move then that is another story.

[gaurangpanchal]

At the moment, I have a straw and cotton plugging the entrance of the test-tube. But they still behave as if the test-tube is open and they are in danger. Should I completely seal the test-tube with cotton?

[Silq]

At the moment, I have a straw and cotton plugging the entrance of the test-tube. But they still behave as if the test-tube is open and they are in danger. Should I completely seal the test-tube with cotton?

I'm not sure about plugging the test but the ants being shy would be a natural thing. I think camponotus are more passive and the nanitics would be extremely timid since how vital they are

[gaurangpanchal]

What if I :

1. Place the founding formicarium inside the box and connect it to the test-tube

2. Expose the tube to artificial (non-heating) light and keep the founding formicarium covered

3. And let the ants move themselves without any disturbance from my side.

 

Will this stress them out?

[Amazant]

What if I :
1. Place the founding formicarium inside the box and connect it to the test-tube
2. Expose the tube to artificial (non-heating) light and keep the founding formicarium covered
3. And let the ants move themselves without any disturbance from my side.
 
Will this stress them out?

Light will usually stress them out unless they are used to it, and unless the test tube starts having tons of mold or dries out then you can try and make them move but right now since the are founding I think it would be better to let them move in their own time. Just keep watering the founding formicarium and keep it covered. Some possibilities of your ants starting not to do as much may be caused by an increase off stress, which could be caused by you checking on too much. If you want them to be more comfortable you could cover the test tube with Tin foil or something similar. Another reason for them slowing down is because the queen and the nanitic have enough food at the moment. They could also be coming out less at this time of year which I have noticed with the Camponotus around my area either because they have enough food or they could be trying to stay away from many of the ant wars which are going on at this time of year. Many of the Tetramorium colonies around me are fighting around this time which might have caused this kind of behavior after living near them for so long which has caused them to adapt to the occurrence. I wish you luck I hope one day this becomes what you consider to be a wonderful colony.

[Nawor3565]

I've raised multiple Camponotus Pennsylvanicus colonies. The brood takes a long time to develop, it took about 2 months before most of the workers hatched. There's a few things I can recommend, one is to stop checking on them often. Leave them be, and only check on them once or twice a week. Otherwise, keep them in a dark, quiet place. Two, I always give my Camponotus a small test tube of (boiled) sugar water with a cotton ball in the end. I see them feeding from there multiple times a day, and it allows them to eat whenever they're hungry. Three, they are VERY picky about what kind of protein they'll eat. None of my colonies would even touch anything that was dried, and deli meat was also ignored. The only things they will reliably eat are freshly frozen fruit flies (which are easy to keep and can be bought at the pet store) and centipedes. They REALLY like it when I catch a centipede, I put it in the freezer overnight to kill off any possible parasites or other nasty things from outside. Then I break it in half and give it to them, and there's never anything left after a day. You just have to be careful that there's no pesticides on it, it's not a problem where I live but you need to watch out for it. The last thing I can recommend is to make sure they have enough heat, they really like heat and it helps the brood develop faster.

[gaurangpanchal]

Thank you everyone for your advice.

 

What I am going to do now:

1. I am only going to disturb them when I feed them. And I will only feed them protein once a week and give them different fruit,honey, sugar water once in the weekend. So they will be disturbed only twice a week and that would be during feeding time.

2. Shift my heating cable to give them localized warm/dry zone and cool/moist zone in the test-tube, so they can pick wherever they want to place the brood.

3. Try to mix-up their diets so as to not "bore" them with the same stuff.

4. Be patient and not make any changes to their setup till absolutely necessary.

5. I had covered their test-tube with foil, so I will continue to keep them covered at all times.

 

 

For #3, I had ordered a box of live crickets from amazon which I have kept in the freezer. I cut the legs of the cricket and thaw it for them. They accept the cricket legs I give them.

So as to mix-up their protein, what would be your suggestion?

       - If insects, then which ones can I get from amazon?

       - Also, apart from insects, are there any other protein sources that C. Pennsylvanicus enjoy?

 

 

Thanks again for helping a newbie

[Nawor3565]

Thank you everyone for your advice.

 

What I am going to do now:

1. I am only going to disturb them when I feed them. And I will only feed them protein once a week and give them different fruit,honey, sugar water once in the weekend. So they will be disturbed only twice a week and that would be during feeding time.

2. Shift my heating cable to give them localized warm/dry zone and cool/moist zone in the test-tube, so they can pick wherever they want to place the brood.

3. Try to mix-up their diets so as to not "bore" them with the same stuff.

4. Be patient and not make any changes to their setup till absolutely necessary.

5. I had covered their test-tube with foil, so I will continue to keep them covered at all times.

 

 

For #3, I had ordered a box of live crickets from amazon which I have kept in the freezer. I cut the legs of the cricket and thaw it for them. They accept the cricket legs I give them.

So as to mix-up their protein, what would be your suggestion?

       - If insects, then which ones can I get from amazon?

       - Also, apart from insects, are there any other protein sources that C. Pennsylvanicus enjoy?

 

 

Thanks again for helping a newbie

 

I'm surprised they're taking the cricket legs; like I said, all my colonies would completely ignore anything that wasn't fresh. As for how to mix it up, I would just try getting a flightless fruit fly culture at any pet store, I got mine at PetSmart. If you also buy a fruit fly culture kit like this one, you have an effectively infinite source of protein. To actually get them out, I just took a clean takeout container, quickly opened the fruit fly jar, shook some into the container, and quickly closed both the jar and container. I do it on the porch so it doesn't matter if some escape. Then just put the container in the freezer for a few hours, and then give it to them.

 

I wouldn't spend much on freeze dried crickets, mealworms, etc. since they always seem to ignore them. They appear to suck the liquids out of their food, and if they're dried, there's not much there for them. I personally haven't found anything other than insects that they like, so far I've tried dry and wet cat food, high-protein seeds and beans (although I've seen wild Camponotus carrying maple tree seeds), and some sausage that I forgot in the back of my freezer. They took the sausage one time, but ignored it every other time I've given it to them. Some people have had luck mixing chocolate protein powder with water, but I haven't tried that yet. I would reccomend experimenting and offering them different things to see what they like.

[gaurangpanchal]

 

Thank you everyone for your advice.

 

What I am going to do now:

1. I am only going to disturb them when I feed them. And I will only feed them protein once a week and give them different fruit,honey, sugar water once in the weekend. So they will be disturbed only twice a week and that would be during feeding time.

2. Shift my heating cable to give them localized warm/dry zone and cool/moist zone in the test-tube, so they can pick wherever they want to place the brood.

3. Try to mix-up their diets so as to not "bore" them with the same stuff.

4. Be patient and not make any changes to their setup till absolutely necessary.

5. I had covered their test-tube with foil, so I will continue to keep them covered at all times.

 

 

For #3, I had ordered a box of live crickets from amazon which I have kept in the freezer. I cut the legs of the cricket and thaw it for them. They accept the cricket legs I give them.

So as to mix-up their protein, what would be your suggestion?

       - If insects, then which ones can I get from amazon?

       - Also, apart from insects, are there any other protein sources that C. Pennsylvanicus enjoy?

 

 

Thanks again for helping a newbie

 

I'm surprised they're taking the cricket legs; like I said, all my colonies would completely ignore anything that wasn't fresh. As for how to mix it up, I would just try getting a flightless fruit fly culture at any pet store, I got mine at PetSmart. If you also buy a fruit fly culture kit like this one, you have an effectively infinite source of protein. To actually get them out, I just took a clean takeout container, quickly opened the fruit fly jar, shook some into the container, and quickly closed both the jar and container. I do it on the porch so it doesn't matter if some escape. Then just put the container in the freezer for a few hours, and then give it to them.

 

I wouldn't spend much on freeze dried crickets, mealworms, etc. since they always seem to ignore them. They appear to suck the liquids out of their food, and if they're dried, there's not much there for them. I personally haven't found anything other than insects that they like, so far I've tried dry and wet cat food, high-protein seeds and beans (although I've seen wild Camponotus carrying maple tree seeds), and some sausage that I forgot in the back of my freezer. They took the sausage one time, but ignored it every other time I've given it to them. Some people have had luck mixing chocolate protein powder with water, but I haven't tried that yet. I would reccomend experimenting and offering them different things to see what they like.

 

 

 

The crickets are NOT freeze-DRIED. They were live crickets which I popped into the freezer. I thaw them and feed them. So they're practically fresh