472 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

I guess they're actually Cichlid pellets.

 

http://www.petsmart....36-catid-300041

 

[Gregory2455]

I find myself coming on every day wishing this was updated.  Best species in California. How much fungus is there now?

[dspdrew]

Yeah, and I'm wishing every day there was some major change to make an update about. I will say everything's going well and there is slow but steady growth.

[dspdrew]

Update 9-4-2014

 

The bucket didn't seem to have anything in it, so I dumped that one too.

 

At this point there are six queens with fungus growing, five of them pretty healthy gardens. For a while I thought I only had five left with growing fungus, but then suddenly a little clump of fungus started growing again in the sixth setup. I haven't fixed the other setups yet because I'm trying to leave the good ones alone for now. The original queen now has a pupa, and a few larvae, one of which is already starting to pupate as well. the first queen with donated fungus has about five larvae, and the other queens all have a good amount of eggs, with one queen having one small larva too. All fungus gardens are continuing to grow larger.

 

I recently added some pieces of sunflower petals given to me by Chromerust to their substrate mix. It looks like removing the containers of water from the foraging area has stopped that bluish-green mold from forming on the substrate so far.

 

Here's the original queen's fungus garden. You can see the pupa and the biggest larva in the center.

 

 

 

A close-up of the brand new pupa.

 

 

 

The only fungus pellet from the second nuptial flight that actually started growing has now withered away and died.

[Alza]

my acromyrmex queen got its first worker! 

[Alza]

i actually don't have one.

[Gregory2455]

Funny Alza.

[Alza]

i don't actually want one right now surprisingly 

[Gregory2455]

That's good. It show responsibility that you don't want something you may not be able to take care of.

[Alza]

mhm

[dspdrew]

Bad fungus.

 

[Alza]

that's the fungus it was farming ? wow betrayal 

[dspdrew]

No, it's a common fungus from the desert.

[Alza]

oh

[Gregory2455]

I brought that yellow fungus back as well...

[dspdrew]

Something about it is just really creepy and disgusting.

[Gregory2455]

Yes, yes it is.

[dspdrew]

Update 9-14-2014
 
First worker! One of the original queen's pupae just eclosed this morning, after being pretty dark orange for about two days now. There are also at least two other pupae in this colony, I think maybe even three, it's just hard to see some of them buried in the fungus garden. For the last two weeks this queen's fungus garden hasn't really gotten any larger. It's been changing, but not growing, so I hope that's normal.
 

 

 

 

 
 
All five of the other queens' fungus gardens are almost as big as the original queen's garden. Most of them have brood, with a few of the oldest ones having multiple larvae.
 
It appears removing the water containers did solve the problem with mold growing on the substrate in the foraging container. Most of the fungus gardens have been growing fine, so the extra humidity in the "out world" was obviously not needed. As soon as I get some more of the foraging containers, I plan to bring the amount of colonies back up to 10. I still have around 20 queens in test tubes without fungus, in addition to the ones I've set aside as rejects.

[Alza]

wow

[Gregory2455]

Yay! Congratulations!