2 replies to this topic

[drawpositive]

I have several founding ant colonies set up in glass test tubes, with cotton ball stoppers holding back a few "inches" of distilled water --the "typical test tube setup."

 

After several weeks of sitting at elevated temperatures inside my makeshift incubator, the water is evaporating out of the test tube setups, leaving behind large pockets of air in the test tube where the distilled water used to be.  Does anyone have any tips on how to refill these pockets of air behind the cotton stopper without disrupting the founding colonies within said test tubes?  I don't really want to turn the test tubes in a vertical orientation when manipulating them (although maybe this is ok?)  I'm guessing I may need a syringe and needle to inject fresh water into the water cavity behind the cotton stopper? (but I don't have a syringe nor know where to get one)  

 

Is there some trick to making sure that founding colonies in test tubes get their water periodically refreshed without attempting to force the colony to move into a new test tube?

[TestSubjectOne]

Refilling test tubes isn't an option if they are occupied; if your tube runs out of water you need to move the colony into a new tube or nest. However from what you said it seems like your tubes still have some amount of water in them. If this is the case you don't need to worry about water until they are truly empty. If you noticed that the tubes are losing water at a very high rate it may be that they are in physical contact with a heat source, and you can solve the issue by moving them.

[drawpositive]

Refilling test tubes isn't an option if they are occupied; if your tube runs out of water you need to move the colony into a new tube or nest. However from what you said it seems like your tubes still have some amount of water in them. If this is the case you don't need to worry about water until they are truly empty. If you noticed that the tubes are losing water at a very high rate it may be that they are in physical contact with a heat source, and you can solve the issue by moving them.

Ok I can accept this ruling.

 

The test tubes are not in direct contact with the heating source.  Evaporation is occurring just due to the test tubes being in a warm chamber.  

 

I will move the colonies once the water has fully evaporated.  Thank you for the feedback.