72 replies to this topic

[ryanp347]

This is my first journal for my A. versicolor colony that I purchased from Andrew on 12/3/21.

Colony consisted of the queen, between 7-9 workers, and a nice size healthy fungus garden beginning to form.

Fungus looks healthy and appears to be being added on to quickly and growing well.

I began a time lapse of the colony today. Todays time lapse was shot on a 30 second interval and ran the entire day. I will post the footage later tonight when it is done and it will be around a minute long.

When setting up the light and the camera for the shots I had to dial in the temperature as it was raising by a couple degrees even though my light source is LED. After moving it further away and turning on a ceiling fan the temperature stabilized at 77.0F which is what I was aiming for.

I will try to take a humidity reading at some point but I don't want to disturb the fungus chamber if it can be avoided.

Edited by ryanp347, December 31 2021 - 4:47 PM.

[ryanp347]

Here's a coin for size reference it's around the size of a nickel

[ryanp347]

Here's the link to the first time lapse:

 

 

Had a couple mishaps but I'm getting the hang of it. Will try a birds eye view tomorrow now that the condensation that was at the top of the fungus chamber from transporting it has gone away. 

[ANTdrew]

Really cool time lapse!

[ryanp347]

Really cool time lapse!

Thanks! Going to try to post them up daily.

[ryanp347]

Day 2: 12/5/2021

Colony is looking great again today. Still very actively adding on to their fungus garden including attaching it to the ceiling. Their favorite food has been the orange cichlid pellets by far. It's pretty much the only thing they bring back to the fungus chamber which gives the garden its specks of orange covered in fungus.

There are still between 8-10 workers but there are two or more pupae as shown in the pictures I'll attach along with a lot of eggs and larvae.

I was able to keep the temperatures more consistent today, between 75.6 to 78.9F.

Was not able to test the humidity and need to look into a smaller probe that I can fit into the tube between cells perhaps? The fungus chamber definitely looks humid though and ants have been working to plug up what little holes there are with substrate.

Next thing I want to do is add a garbage cell so that they have a better place to leave their waste.

Zeiss suggested I order fluon and do an open top outworld so that's on the way and should arrive by the 21st.

Todays time-lapse was shot on a 60 second interval and ran for a total 23 hours for a total of around 53 seconds on footage.

Let me know if you have any advice or recommendations for adding in a garbage cell for a total of 3!

Attached Images

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Edited by ryanp347, December 5 2021 - 9:07 PM.

[ryanp347]

[ryanp347]

I plan on leaving the time-lapse on 24/7 and then downloading the new version from the beginning to the end each day, so it will get progressively longer over time. Once they get too long I'll start breaking them up into pieces.

[dspdrew]

That time-lapse looks really good.

[ryanp347]

That time-lapse looks really good.

Thanks! It's going 24/7 now so it's awesome to be able to see all of their progress over time. Messed with the video settings to get a bit better clarity on the newest one. Surprisingly, the camera I'm using is very affordable for how well it works. I got it on sale on Black Friday for $110 it's normally $200. It is the Atli eon time-lapse camera on Amazon.

[ryanp347]

Day 3: 12/6/21

 

I decided to hold off on posting last night so I could get on a better schedule and post during the day, so all the posts will be a day behind basically in terms of dates. 

 

The fungus garden went crazy today with growth. From the beginning of the time-lapse to the end you can really see the white, pillowy fungus slowly getting thicker and thicker over the entire structure.

 

There are still the same number of workers but several more larvae have gotten closer to the pupae stage and there are a lot of eggs. One pupae has turned orange and has clearly defined eyes and legs, so it should eclose soon.

 

There were not a lot of new additions to the fungus garden today which is why it was allowed to become much more white and fluffy, but there have been some additions to the ceiling again.

 

Also, workers have begun piling up substrate into the tube between cells so it seems they are at least planning on adding to the garden soon.

 

Temp has been more consistent, between 74-78F which I'm happy with. 

 

The workers and queen are grooming each other very often, which is cool to see. Never expected as much interaction between members as I am seeing.

 

This being my first any colony I was pretty nervous starting out but Andrew and Zeiss provided me with a lot of helpful info that made me a lot more confident keeping these. 

 

 

Today's time-lapse will be 2 minutes long for a total of 48 hours worth of ant fungus garden building goodness. Amazing to see the fungus slowly cover all of the substrate over time. Notice the orange cichlid pellet on the left that slowly grows fungus and turns white over time! Was wondering what it was doing just sitting there being unused and then it started growing.

 

 

[ryanp347]

Let me know if you like the music or not! I think it makes it a bit more chill to watch.

[dspdrew]

That looks better than I thought it would. what time interval are the pictures being taken? The music's perfect.

[NancyZamora4991]

that grew a lot! I love the music too

Edited by NancyZamora4991, December 7 2021 - 6:07 PM.

[Daniel]

That looks better than I thought it would. what time interval are the pictures being taken? The music's perfect.

Agreed. Very cool.

[ryanp347]

That looks better than I thought it would. what time interval are the pictures being taken? The music's perfect.

 

TIme-lapse is on a 60 second interval! One shot a minute for two days is that footage. I think it turned out neat watching the fungus cover everything.

 

 

That looks better than I thought it would. what time interval are the pictures being taken? The music's perfect.

Agreed. Very cool.

 

 

Thanks!

 

that grow a lot! I love the music too

 

Thanks for the feedback!

[PaigeX]

Loved the music with it and that was awesome to watch the fungus grow and take over the new areas within a day! 

[ryanp347]

Day 5

 

Waited a bit longer to post today because I was busy watching and trying to film my first time seeing an ant eclosing! Not sure if I'm using that correctly but I'm still excited haha

 

A lot of the footage came out shaky and doesn't look all that great but still pretty cool to see.

 

I've counted a total of 11 workers plus the one that just eclosed makes around 12 so far! 

 

A few other pupae have started to turn orange so they should be getting close as well. They'll be ready within a week most likely.

 

Still no new additions to the fungus garden and it has swelled to a super poofy white form that it completely different from what it started as. The weird part is that workers have tried to bring in new substrate to add on several times but each time they do the queen turns when away. The tube between outworld and garden has even more substrate piled in it now too, so not sure what's up.

 

Noticed that the fungus in contact with the bottom of the formicarium turns a grey color, guessing that this is normal considering the rest still looks white and healthy.

 

Temps have been consistent still, other than a slip up when I was recording that got a little hot but not above 80F.

 

Ya, other than seeing an ant eclose for the first time there hasn't been much else going on.

 

Excuse the video quality I was having a hard time doing the time-lapse and recording on my phone at the same time. 

 

First video is shot on my phone of the pupa eclosing and the second is the time-lapse from days 4 and 5.

 

Took forever to process for some reason so I'm posting later than I wanted to.

 

 

Edited by ryanp347, December 9 2021 - 10:58 AM.

[antsriondel]

nice videos!

[ryanp347]

The fluon from byFormica came in early so I just gave that a go...

 

Let me start by saying that I'm sure it works great and it'll be fine BUT right now, I DOOO NOT trust it at all haha

 

Having the top to the outworld off just feels wrong to me and I keep expecting to walk in there to find no ants, even though I know it's necessary.

 

I set up my phone camera on another time-lapse to watch the outworld juuust to ease my mind a bit and so far so good, no escapes but only one ant has reached it so far.

 

Will be posting more time-lapse footage from a couple different angles later today.

Edited by ryanp347, December 10 2021 - 2:28 PM.