57 replies to this topic

[Jonathan5608]

Tetras are pretty easy to keep. Hopefully you’ll have a successful colony

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

They arrived at about 2pm an hour before I leave school. My mom checked to see if they are alive and they are. The nanitics are so much smaller compared to the normal workers I saw in Minnesota.






They are not excepting food so I don't know what to do. They are specifically not eating honey soaked apple pieces. Should I be concerned. Or should I offer them protein first. Please help

[ANTdrew]

Tiny colonies like this eat very little, but they respond much more to protein than sugars.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

Thank you they are excepting food now. I will send photos this evening

[100lols]

I always start with a tiny drop of nectar/sugar water and small fruit fly or tiny slice of superworm/mealworm, cricket or roach legs, or sometimes I catch mosquitoes, etc.

Depends on the size of the ants

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

The ants are doing great she lost some nanitics but is about to gain more workers.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

All most at 15 workers now with tons of large larvae and pupae. It was getting hard to open their testube so I gave them a tubs and tubes setup for now.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

Here are some pics that I forgot to upload yesterday. One is of a dead worker under my microscope.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

Colony nearing 20 workers they are doing great.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

They are nearing thirty workers and are doing great.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

It's been a long time since I updated.

So the ants kept chewing at the cotton and making their test tube flood. So I build them a petri-dish to keep them from committing suicide. But then I gave them a dead spider and it molded and the queen almost died. I moved them to another petri-dish and they survived.


I was breaking sticks and found a Psedomyrmex colony. They have 8 workers and are very active. They are also in a petri-dish setup. I will upload pics tomorrow.

[Jonathan5608]

It's been a long time since I updated.

So the ants kept chewing at the cotton and making their test tube flood. So I build them a petri-dish to keep them from committing suicide. But then I gave them a dead spider and it molded and the queen almost died. I moved them to another petri-dish and they survived.


I was breaking sticks and found a Psedomyrmex colony. They have 8 workers and are very active. They are also in a petri-dish setup. I will upload pics tomorrow.

I think Psedomyrmex need a stick lock setup to survive. You could try clear plastic straws.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

I am freezing the Psedomyrmex colony (the bit me) and they are invasive.






Tetramorium setup










The queen runs into the tube when startled. Otherwise she lives behind the pile of sand

Edited by asim, October 28 2023 - 10:10 AM.

[ANTdrew]

RIP

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

Tetramorium are in hibernation

My friends chicke coop had a small camponotus decipiens colony living in it. She asked me if I can catch them. I peeled back a piece of old wood and there was the queen

So now I have a C. decipiens colony












They live in a setup that I made years ago in third grade for any camponotus (it's vertical and the outside looks like tree bark)

[100lols]

Is that made from foam? Congratz on the collection.

[JustabirdfromFlorida]

It's plaster I painstakingly carved and painted.

I am also going to end this journal and start a new one

[SHmealer]

That's floridanus btw