472 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Some nests in the wild.

 

 

[BeginnerAntKeeper]

Wow, looks like some tiny meteorite craters lol.

[dspdrew]

Update 11-9-2019

So I'm now down to just three of the older colonies. The largest one's fungus was actually starting to die because they had ran out of substrate probably weeks ago and I didn't even notice.   Anyway, I gave them a whole bunch more and they immediately started gathering it and sticking it to the fungus. Within about an hour the fungus was completely covered with fish pellets. They seem to really like those.

 

Two days later, every one of those fish pellets was already covered in a thin white layer of fungus, so it seems to be growing good again.

 

As for all of the new queens I set up with little pieces of fungus, only eight of them still have fungus, and only about two of those actually grew it larger. I was going to set them up with more fungus again, but decided to wait a little while for the largest fungus garden to get fluffier and thicker before I take anything from it.

[Kalidas]

Hoe old are your oldest colonies?

[dspdrew]

Hoe old are your oldest colonies?

 

About a year.

[Kalidas]

Oh that's awesome, glad they are doing well. That first year seems like the most difficult hump to get over with them.

[dspdrew]

Update 11-16-2019

Since my large Pogonomyrmex rugsosus colony died off, I re-setup their 10-gallon "Dirt Box" formicarium, and put the smallest colony of Acromyrmex in it. This colony is not doing well at all, so I was just curious if they might dig a nest in the dirt and do any better. Last time I had a colony in one of my large dirt setups, they did great until the colony suddenly died like pretty much all of my colonies eventually did.

 

I reduced their formicarium down to just the single fungus chamber, and put it in the tank on the surface.

 

 

 

I left it pretty muddy since that's what their natural habitat is like at the time of their mating flights.

 

 

 

 

 

This is all the fungus the colony has at this time.

 

[Zeiss]

How do you plan on keeping it muddy?  Also, I found my colony really, really likes the cichlid fish pellets.  Seems possibly even moreso than the dried rose petals I use. 

 

I also have a few designs I want to try out for colonies next time I get a few queens.

Edited by Zeiss, November 16 2019 - 3:03 AM.

[dspdrew]

How do you plan on keeping it muddy?

 

Well I don't plan for it to remain muddy. Obviously it's only muddy in their natural habitat just after it rains. It's all just dried clay now, with sandier soil below, just like in the wild.

 

 

 

Also, I found my colony really, really likes the cichlid fish pellets.  Seems possibly even moreso than the dried rose petals I use.

 

Yes, they really like fish pellets.

[Kalidas]

I did kind of wonder if a dirt box setup for leaf cutters could work. Take a HUGE aquarium and maybe add a smaller one inside but enough room for them to store the fungus. And let them do their thing against the glass like your normal dirt box set ups but on a MUCH LARGER scale

[dspdrew]

That's exactly what this 10-gallon aquarium is.

 

https://www.formicul...9-2017/?p=24464

 

[Kalidas]

Oh awesome, how well does it work? Do you get a good visual still?

[dspdrew]

It works well. It's glass so it stays more clear than the small plastic ones.

[Kalidas]

It does seem like a really cool idea.

Still working on my design, but I love watches yours. You got quite a talent for making them.

Edited by Kalidas, November 16 2019 - 8:03 PM.

[dspdrew]

Update 11-21-2019

Well, the light I put over the colony I was trying to move into the 10-gallen tank heated up the metal shroud it was in so hot that it killed the fungus and then eventually the whole colony before I realized how hot it was.
 
So, I decided to move one of the two remaining colonies in. They foraged around for a few days, and then I suddenly found about 30 dead workers in the foraging area. I noticed some of them fighting, so I'm not sure if they got confused and got in a fight with each other, or if some of them were already dead and they moved them out of the nest, or what. I'm not sure what happened. The next day I noticed they finally started digging a nest in one of the corners. After about a day of digging, I noticed the queen was gone from the original nest. I couldn't find her anywhere, so I'm hoping they moved her into the new nest already. After about another day of digging, I noticed all of the brood was gone, so that is probably in the new nest as well.
 
By now I don't see hardly any workers left in the original nest, and see quite a few working on the new nest. They weren't cleaning the glass off very well, but that is probably because they hadn't dug the chamber very large yet. I covered the glass it up with some masking tape to see if that will help. I hope they are moving fungus in the new nest. The last time I moved a colony into a large dirt nest, they started new fungus gardens very quickly.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
I also set up 26 new queens with donated fungus in all of the empty formicariums again, after the majority of them failed last time. Hopefully I'll end up with a little higher percentage of successful ones this time. Right now I only have six new ones that are actually growing their fungus. The only problem is none of them seem to be producing much. I'm hoping that maybe I'm just not seeing the brood, as they hide it very well sometimes.

[TennesseeAnts]

Sorry about the other colony. They seemed like they were doing well. When are you gonna do that Cyphomyrmex journal?

[dspdrew]

Sorry about the other colony. They seemed like they were doing well. When are you gonna do that Cyphomyrmex journal?

 

That queen died.

[TennesseeAnts]

Oh. Good thing you didn't start that journal then.

[Kalidas]

That is just so awesome to see

[dspdrew]

Update 11-23-2019

I checked and could see what looks like a little fungus garden started down inside the chambers of their new nest. They have also almost completely abandoned their old nest and fungus garden by now. I can tell some of the fungus is in the early stages of dying off, so I decided to use most of it right now to start even more colonies. I checked what I started two days ago, and there are about 9 of them that are doing really well, as the queen has stuck all sorts of substrate and fish pellets all over the fungus already. 11 of them are not dong well at all or have already failed. I replaced the queens in the 11 bad ones and added more fungus. In addition to this, I setup 9 more queens in one-chamber formicariums, which I still have plenty of.

 

 

 

Hopefully if any of these fail, the last remaining fungus in the abandoned nest will still be good enough to use in the replacement of those queens.