that workers a bit smaller then i expected
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that workers a bit smaller then i expected
Nanatics, if in a polymorphic species, are almost always of the smallest caste. The majors of this species that I saw in the desert were almost the size of the queen.
Congrats!
Update 9-22-2014
The original colony is now up to three workers, and doing well. The other five are still doing well also.
Yesterday I setup six more containers with donated fungus from all six existing colonies. I also kept a small piece of the fungus in a test tube to see how long it can last without being tended to by the ants.
Update 9-25-2014
Right away, the fungus in four of the new setups just died. I'm not sure if they were in too low of humidity for too long as I was gathering small pieces from each existing setup. The fungus in one of the new setups was clearly alive and growing, and another looks like it might be okay, I'm just not sure still. I took a larger piece of fungus from one of the existing healthy fungus gardens and gave it to one of the failed setups. So, at this point I have eight, possibly nine good setups going. From now on, I think I will add new setups one at a time, not adding the next, until I see that the last one was successful.
Yesterday morning, I watched one of the new queens rotate and lick a piece of sunflower petal for about 20 minutes while periodically adding secretions to it. At one point it started to place it on the fungus, but then after adding a large amount of fluid to it, continued rotating and licking on it some more. I wasn't able to stay and see how long before she finally added it to the fungus, but when I got home later that day, it was added.
The small piece of fungus in the test tube lasted a little over two days, before withering away.
that description ...
Antcam!
This species looks so rewarding to raise.
The good man is the friend of all living things. - Gandhi
It feels like quite an accomplishment to do it.
Not only that but he was also able to help me kick-start my queens too!
Hard to believe it all came from this.
That single pellet gives all this! Did it all just come from one pellet?! I thought you had a lot that had their pellets.
I did, but they all died except one.
Oh my...
Hmm, I will definitely need to push my new fungus up to the wet cotton, as the queens always just place it midway in the test tube.
Update 10-22-2014
The original colony is still doing well and is now up to 10 workers, with many more on the way. They are still mostly interested in the sunflower petals, but have recently fertilized their fungus with a few pieces of some Apple & Cinnamon Chex cereal I gave them. They've been keeping their test tube closed off most of the time by piling substrate in front of the entrance, and only opening it for a little while every once and a while to come out and forage. One thing about these ants is they're always busy. I rarely see them just sitting; they're almost always doing something.
As for the other 11 colonies, three of them have workers, one with four, one with two, and one with just one. All but three of the 11 have larvae and/or pupae. One of the latest colonies I put together, has failed for the third or fourth time now, so I moved the queen to a test tube, and replaced her with the last remaining queen currently living in a test tube only.
The fungus I was keeping in the test tube by itself as an experiment finally started to die after a week and a half. This fungus is actually what I gave the queen I replaced the last failure with. So far it doesn't look a whole lot better than it did when I gave it to her, but it's only been a few days, so we'll see.
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