31 replies to this topic

[Fatatoille]

Update No.6 - 14/12/2020

 

Hi there! Just a quick update to inform that the colony is doing well in diapause at the moment, they have even had a slight worker boost from the few remaining pupae they had going into hibernation. And as promised, I managed to get some photos of the redheaded supermajor that recently eclosed. These ants, though not very photogenic, are extremely docile and just wander about once they have calmed down from the initial pickup, not to mention the sheer size of the supermajors allows for some really good photos.

This one is my favorite, they are so cute from the right angles!

Another picture of her from above. 

This one is not a supermajor but one of the smaller redheaded majors that I quite liked.

 

that's all for now folks, enjoy your christmas, hanukkah etc. and have a happy new year!

[Kaelwizard]

 It's so cute

Edited by Kaelwizard, December 15 2020 - 6:46 AM.

[Fatatoille]

Update No.7 - new year.

Just a quick update, The barbs came out of diapause last week and are starting year 2 of their growth. Over the past few months, I have been a bit negligent of checking on them and they had a mold outbreak which killed about half the colony so they are back at around 60 workers (again). I have moved them into a new, clean tubs and tubes setup whilst I wait for payday to come round to buy them a new nest. Since coming out of diapause, they have only eaten seeds and have refused any insects, but the queen has laid a small batch of about 20 eggs, so hopefully their appetite will increase once they hatch. I hope this colony can bounce back in population over the next few months, I have high hopes for my Messors going into the new year and aim to have at least 1000 workers by the end of the season. 

[Kaelwizard]

I hope they have a good recovery.

[Fatatoille]

Update No.8 - 26/04/2021

Well this update is long overdue; the barbs have now been moved into a new nest I bought for them and have resumed normal activities, currently eating 1 cricket and one preboiled fly daily. Here they are eating a soldier fly while they were in a temporary setup, these did not as garner much interest as I had hoped. I also bought some new sand-loam mix as I am quite fond of the colour contrast it has on the ants.

A fair few new minors have eclosed boosting the colonies numbers slightly to around 80 workers, a much higher proportion of brood is also minors compared to usually, I am speculative that since the large majority of the colonies die offs were minors, the colony is counteracting this by putting priority for minor production over major production; though a more reasonable explanation would be that these minors are the first generation of workers of the season (due to the colony still waking up and not taking in as much protein as they could)  and hence more major brood should be present in the later generations. Speaking of which, a new major has eclosed and she is now the third largest worker in the colony; callow majors are always so cute!

 

On a different note, I recently received these little ladies:

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=OL_xUABvoZc

There's about 25 of them. Given that the messor and novomessor share a few similar traits (both being granivorous and in the same tribe, though that's about it), this colony will probably make an appearance from time to time.

[MrPurpleB]

Find your journal interesting and I like the pictures that are posted. The supermajor is quite an amazing thing. Glad to see you brought back the sand, tubes and tubs setups with orange sand have a nice look to them. I hope to get some sand for my Camponotus when they grow out of their test tube. 

 

Good luck this year with this colony.  Wonderful Ants.

[NoveltyAntsYT]

update....?

[Fatatoille]

update....?

so soon? I can whip up a quick update later this evening, as it is around the one year anniversary of me keeping my barbs, it would be nice to commemorate this in the journal.

[Kaelwizard]

update....?

Why do you keep asking people to update when they literally did like 3-4 days ago? They don't need to update every day. Once a week or a couple times a month is normal for a lot of people. Not every single day.

[Fatatoille]

Update No.9 - 1st year anniversary - 06/05/2021

Well its been a whole year now keeping my barbs and what a journey its been! The colony has been through thick and thin and still manages to come out on top, its sometimes hard to believe they were only started from a queen and 4 workers. Despite their troubled history and less than optimal growth, these ants are easily my hardiest and and most interesting colony to watch grow and will always hold a special place in my heart for that matter; not to mention these ants were the very reason for me starting ant keeping so I owe a great deal of respect to my barbs and the species as a whole. As of now, however, not much is going on with the barbs to warrant a detailed update, they are growing at a nice pace and are slowly filling out their formicarium, mostly with minors and are generally just very chilled out, which is definitely warranted given the stressful 6 months of being moved between temporary containers.

 

On another note, because this update needs some photos, these novomessor cockerelli have been doing quite well, they have gone from a few small larvae and a batch of eggs to this in two weeks:

there's also a bit of extra brood (mostly smaller larvae in the chamber to the right. They have about eight pupae as of me writing this and will most likely have a few more larvae pupating within the coming days, so needless to say, their growth has been quite astounding.

[Fatatoille]

Update No.10 - 12/05/2021

I wasn't expecting to update this so soon, but here we go anyways! A fair bit has happened in such a short amount of time with the barbs, having completely filled the main chamber of their nest within the past two weeks from all the minors that have been eclosing in the current batch of brood. It's mostly just future media and and major larvae and pupae at this point though surprisingly the brood pile has remained relatively consistent in size. The queen has also has laid two new batches of ~30 eggs in total, so I can't see their growth slowing down anytime soon. If they keep growing at this rate, I'm going to need to get a bigger nest for them in the coming weeks.

 

I've also been testing humidity preferences for the messors, and found that they like to compact into areas with the highest humidity (we are talking in excess of 90% here). The second chamber that gives entry to the main chamber is much smaller and hence retains humidity better, so its not uncommon to find the barbs stuck in a black mass with all their brood whenever the main chamber's water reservoir is empty. After talking to some more knowledgeable keepers, this is quite common in smaller messor colonies where they don't have the worker numbers to effectively hydro-regulate and keep the brood moist.

 

I also got some more turkestan roach nymphs. I have not yet offered nymphs to my messors (they have had adult roaches, but never showed much interest in them); they have elicited quite the reaction from the barbs, so these might be a favourite.

 

The novomessor have also been doing incredibly well, the queen has been laying constantly and the first workers new generation are due to eclose tomorrow, when this generation has passed there should be 43 workers. They too, are fond of turkestan roaches.

 

[Fatatoille]

Update No.11 - 20/05/2021

Quick update, not much has been happening growth wise with the barbs at the moment, just a few larger media and majors eclosing every now and then. Though foodwise, I have been diversifying the colonies diet a bit more now that there are more bugs out and about. they got a large boiled housefly a few days ago, they even ate the majority of the exoskeleton; only the wings were left after they had finished with it.

I have been running low on crickets recently, so I gave my all my colonies some cooked chicken as well. With chicken being their favourite, as you would expect, it didn't last too long.

The barbs also like to chew to chicken into little chunks and leave tiny pieces leftover, its a good thing they are so organised with their rubbish.

 

the novomessor also got some chicken, I was not expecting them to eat it, but it was accepted quite eagerly. 

Most of their new generation have also eclosed.