6 replies to this topic

[Lantro]

Hi everybody, this journal will cover my colony Tetramorium caespitum.

My first colony and for a long while probably only colony. 


20.3.2023

The colony and a small starterset from esthetic ants finally arrived.
They have 9 workers and a bit of tiny brood. There where no deaths during transport.

I fed them a fruit fly, a piece of sunflower seeds and a bit of jelly from the set. They took to the fly and seed almost immediatly but have ignored the jelly so far,

I currently keep them in our warm living room at around 23°C, to speed up their growth. I might add a small heating pad or cable to make it even warmer.

 

 

The Queen

 

Aworker carrying their first meal in the new home

 

The whole setup

 

 

[antsinvirgina]

I love your setup 

 

 

 

Best of luck!

[antsriondel]

Wow I used the same setup a few months ago and it was awesome! eventually the colony got too big and I decided to move them. Hope your colony does well! 

Edited by antsriondel, March 20 2023 - 10:04 AM.

[Lantro]

Good news:

The queen has laid a few eggs, I could count around 3-4 eggs. Maybe more.
Otherwise the colony has been realy laid back, rarely venturing out during the day.  But the fruitlfy was a massive meal for this tiny colony.
I offer them fresh sugar water/jelly every 3-4 days but they haven´t shown massive interest in that, sometimes in the evening there is a worker sipping a bit but not much.

[Lantro]

Time for the next update:

I had to move the colony out of the mini outworld. They realy panicked every time I opened the set up to feed them.
For now they live in a 160x16mm testtube with a cotton/drinking straw devider. Since then they have really calmed down and have been growing alot better. The warm weather probably helped too.

They have a big pile of small/medium larvea, a pile of eggs and a few large larvea that should be pupating in the next few days.
Feeding wise they are not very picky, they get 2-3 freshly squashed fruit flies every few days. They absolutly go mad for crumbs of tuck crackers.
If the nice weather continues they should have a filled up the little chamber fairly soon.

So far its been fun keeping them, can´t wait to give them an actual outworld and watch them forage.
I´ve been spending a lot of time browsing a bunch of antshops figuring out their future setup.

[Lantro]

I´m an ant dad.
Today while feeding them I noticed a very pale worker walking around. And a few more should follow in the next few days.

Here she is. 

 

 

 

They are a joy to keep, eating anything I give to them. So far mainly fruitflies and miscellaneous crumbs/seeds.
They aren´t the biggest fan of sweet liqiuds but Ill continue to offer sugar water.

Judging by the amount of brood they have I´ll have to expand their setup before winter.
 

[Lantro]

Its time for an Update:

First: I moved the colony again since the cotton in the old testtube got really grimy and disgusting. They now occupy a 20x200mm with a small divider made from cork.

The brood pile is absolutly massive and their are eating lots. But sadly mostly at night or when I´m at work.
So far I´ve mainly fed them fruitflys and foodmoths + sugar water or any small crumbs I have laying around.

 

Now that Christmas is slowly coming nearer I'm planning their setup for next year, I was thinking about going with a small Ytong Nest from esthetic ants with a medium outworld.
But I'm open for suggestions.