306 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

I’ve had to deal with similar tubing fit issues before and resulting escapes. What I do is seal it with a bead of silicone. It won’t harm the ants inside at all.
Phenomenal colony!

[AntBoi3030]

What if you like, trip and fall on the nest

Instant death

[That_one_ant_guy]

What if you like, trip and fall on the nest

Instant death

lol

[cap_backfire]

Gonna interview Cheeto about this colony tomorrow night. The link explains when. Join us for info and laughs!!!
At the very least you can see his Atta destroying a bin of leaves over a 2 hour period!!!   You can even watch it on mute.  I don't care.   Check it out!   

Edited by cap_backfire, September 29 2021 - 8:07 PM.

[CheetoLord02]

Not a whole lot has changed with this colony since last time. I've been cutting down their feeding fairly substantially in an attempt to keep them under control. The colony has almost certainly hit 6 digits of workers by now, which is at least 2x as large as I ever intended to get them. Still, I love em, and despite reduced feeding they're still doing very well. Here's a cool pic.
 

I also got bored of the way their rope bridge was configurated, so I edited it a bit and added a loop, because why not. Expect a timelapse in the near future.

 

[ANTdrew]

They be like, “What damn primate twisted our road again?”

[CheetoLord02]

Happy 1 year anniversary everyone!!!

This last year keeping Atta mexicana has been absolutely incredible. I was able to bring this colony back from the brink of death and turn them into a flourishing colony with over 100,000 workers, by far the largest colony I have ever kept. I've learned a lot, and accomplished some of my biggest dreams in antkeeping.

If we look back on the beginnings of this colony, times were tough. They had just a wisp of fungus to hold on to, but after some determination and a lot of experimentation with various plants, I was able to get the colony back on the path to recovery.
 

I was able to do some amazing things, like showing off this species' incredible polymorphism
 

 

 

I was also able to put together one of my all-time dream setups, a vine bridge!

 

Now, a year later, the colony has 7 fungus chambers totaling over 1000 square inches of space, an uncountable number of workers, and an eternal lust for escape.
 

 

 

The most surprising thing so far is that I'm still able to see the queen! She has moved to a new chamber from the one they originally started in, however she seems to prefer hanging out along the edges of the container rather than fully enveloped in fungus.

 

It's really been so much fun sharing the journey of keeping this amazing species with everyone here... and making you all jealous, of course.

On a last note, they decided to make a donut out of their eggs. I rarely see their eggs, however when I do it's always a treat.
 

[TacticalHandleGaming]

I love seeing updates about this colony. Simply amazing to see the growth they've had.

[AntBoi3030]

I don’t know about anyone else…but I wouldn’t eat that doughnut.

[ANTS_KL]

I have followed this journal for a very long time. Congrats!!

[ExponentMars]

ngl I'd want to live in Arizona because it's like, the desert-ant hub. So many arid species of ants there

[ExponentMars]

Does this mean you're discontinuing the journal?? 

[That_one_ant_guy]

I hope not 

[CheetoLord02]

where the heck did you guys get that from? 

[ExponentMars]

where the heck did you guys get that from? 

dunno it's probably cuz you were saying things along the lines of - "it's been a great journey! thanks so much for the support," and stuff like that. lol  , but nice to see the journal will be continuing! 

[antsriondel]

update??

[Chickalo]

update??

My whole date might be messed up, but if I remember on the discord server Cheeto said something along the lines of "I'm leaving right now, about to go on a cruise for (insert amount of days here), so if you want to ask me a question, don't." but that might've been a while ago I dunno

[antsriondel]

 

update??

My whole date might be messed up, but if I remember on the discord server Cheeto said something along the lines of "I'm leaving right now, about to go on a cruise for (insert amount of days here), so if you want to ask me a question, don't." but that might've been a while ago I dunno

 

oh ok, I just checked and he is taking a vacation.

[Antkeeper01]

I thought he was back

[antsriondel]

I thought he was back

me too

Edited by antsriondel, December 29 2021 - 6:18 AM.