26 replies to this topic

[Ants_Dakota]

Awesome journal! As a question though, what are some of the tetras doing in the PVA watering section of the nest? How did they get there?

[RushmoreAnts]

Awesome journal! As a question though, what are some of the tetras doing in the PVA watering section of the nest? How did they get there?

The nest is in the outworld, there is nothing restricting them from climbing in the watering hole.

[Ants_Dakota]

 

Awesome journal! As a question though, what are some of the tetras doing in the PVA watering section of the nest? How did they get there?

The nest is in the outworld, there is nothing restricting them from climbing in the watering hole.

 

Ahh makes sense. We will fix that soon.

[RushmoreAnts]

Update 7

October 26, 2024

 

Thriving as always, these colonies were due for a long-needed change. Last update you were introduced to phase 1, aka STORM's new nest. The weekend after, Ants_Dakota and I crafted outworlds for all three colonies, my Pogonomyrmex colonies, Pheidole colony, and Ants_Dakota's colonies. Colony B and D's test tubes were also becoming filthier than a sketchy gas station bathroom, the face of their cotton consumed with the darkness of mold. I moved them into new test tubes as well, which they took nicely to. All three colonies love their new outworlds, as I'm sure your colonies wi- wait, your colonies? Haha, I clearly meant the rest of my colonies... yeah. Why would I even say, "your colonies"? I mean, it's not like we would ever, I don't know, (THIS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION HAS BEEN CENSORED BY WILDERNESS ANTING, LLC. TO BE DISCLOSED AT A LATER DATE), wouldn't that be something? Anyways, moving on...

 

STORM

Unfortunately, when I first brought the Tetras inside, I did not have enough heating mats to go around. Seeing as STORM was the largest colony, I decided to yield their spot to Colony B and Colony D to help them catch up. STORM got a little overwhelmed by the cold front and immediately began preparing for hibernation; their quick eagerness surprised me, as from all of the research I've done, Tetras do not need to hibernate. Now that they've been on heat for a week, they awoke once more and are eating normally again. The outworld is not heated, which is not ideal, as their foraging is rather sluggish, but it stills works out.

 

Worker count is somewhere between 200-250. They lost a couple dozen workers, as when the nest was in their old pencil case outworld, some workers had the brilliant idea to nest in the hydration sponge chambers, which are not connected to the rest of the nest and are accessible from syringe holes at the top. I was able to recover a few of them, but most of them made an escape once the nest was out on my desk. Brood count is still insane, with just as many large larvae and pupae as workers. I spotted another gargantuan egg cluster while filming them today, signifying their impending rapid recovery.

 

 

They got the big outworld. I'm quite proud of how it turned out, and I was able to experiment with a new beach sand substrate Ants_Dakota came upon and combined it with my Vermiculate to create a double biome outworld, one a fertile forest floor and the other a sandy beachhead, complete with shells, driftwood and seagull prints. They are divided by an impressive quartz mountain straddling both biomes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colony B

It didn't take much. Just one week, that's it. One week of extra heat. They were so close. That's right, this colony came close to beating out STORM, as their worker count careens towards the 200-mark. Fortunately for STORM, they have a noticeably larger brood pile, though B still isn't far behind. As with their old test tube, they distribute themselves relatively evenly throughout the tube, as the heat allows for the entire test tube to be humid to some degree.

 

 

 

Colony D

Like a spiteful sibling, Colony D just does the opposite of whatever B does. They clump all of their brood against the cotton to maximize humidity. Of the three, their colony has the fastest, most aggressive response to being checked on, with even the slightest vibrations sending them spilling into the outworld in droves. They know exactly when they're going to be checked on, and can anticipate it from a combination of vibrations, change in light, and my movement/shadow. It's gotten to the point where they will flip out before I even open the outworld.

 

Curiously, this colony has displayed signs of preparing for hibernation as well, with their brood/worker clump becoming even denser than usual, and activity slowing down, despite being on heat. Then the next day they confound me by acting completely normal and eating ravenously again, despite no change in heat. I will observe their behavior over the next couple weeks and make a judgement of whether I should hibernate them. Seeing as South Dakota is a great deal colder than much of their other conquered American territories and European homelands, it could be speculated that the local populations adapted to hibernate much more readily to deal with the rapid, violent temperature shifts. Even if this is true, I am still unsure if they need to hibernate, and as I said I will observe their behavior and report back.

 

Sitting at between 150-200 workers, the colony has the smallest brood pile of the three, though it is still quite substantial with over 100 large larvae and pupae.

 

I present to you: the blob. Due to their stratified formation, the queen is buried somewhere beneath all of that brood.

 

Just another day in paradise...

 

 

This is where the outworlds dwell when I'm not photographing them. A few Myrmica colonies to the left photobombed the shot.

Edited by RushmoreAnts, October 26 2024 - 8:43 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

 Update 8

December 7, 2024

So recently I've been extremely bogged down with other commitments and haven't had time to post. Unfortunately, this also led to me not caring for my colonies as diligently as I had previously. Don't worry, they're still perfectly fine; they just aren't quite as big as they could've been. Now that I'm free to give them some TLC, they will soon return to their former glorious growth.

 

STORM

STORM was hit hardest by the lack of resources, since their nest needs to be watered much more frequently than a test tube. I managed to keep it watered enough that they didn't suffer any losses, but growth grinded to a halt. A week ago, I began showering them with water and food, and they perked right back up. I fed them 5 large crickets in 48 hours, three on one day and two a couple days later, and they completely demolished them. I also discovered that Tetras absolutely adore pistachios, both the green, fleshy nuts themselves and the flakey, brown outer casing alike. I have a big bag that I snack from, but a couple months ago I noticed STORM devouring a small piece of pistachio that fell within their influence. I fed this colony half of an entire pistachio along with the two later crickets, and they surprisingly went for the pistachio pieces first, dragging the comparatively enormous pieces back into the nest shortly after. Then and only then after they secured the pistachios did they touch the crickets. I feared the nuts may be too hard for the Tetras to process, but they had no problem chewing pieces off of the larger chunks, before and after individual workers hauled the massive chunks into the nest by themselves. Ants are amazing. Inside the nest the pieces were further broken down by the workers and, more notably, the larvae, whom the workers piled onto the chunks to feast on the unlimited nutrition. As a direct result of this influx of food and water, the once shriveled up, inactive larvae are now enormous and will soon become equal if not greater than the largest workers the colony currently wields. The workers themselves, once sluggish and unresponsive, now bustle with activity and excitement, patrolling their spacious, luxurious outworld in the dozens. 

They currently have ~250 workers and 100 large larvae. It's not a massive brood pile, but the queen will no doubt begin producing exponentially larger generations shortly.

 

 

A half-processed pistachio piece

 

Colony B

Colony B used this opportunity to catch up to STORM and is around the same size, if not larger. Their test tube provided unlimited water while STORM was caught lacking, until it didn't. Yeah, the test tube flooded when I wasn't around to intervene, and when I ended up checking on them, they were living in the entrance to their test tube, the only dry part. A week ago, I finally intervened and gave them a new test tube at the same time I fed them. Like STORM, they absolutely adored the pistachios I gave them and dragged them into the test tube to feed to their larvae. Their larvae are now healthy and plump, and this colony will now rival STORM for the #1 spot.

I mentioned earlier that all three colonies may be showing signs of wanting to hibernate. After I came back to them, they show no such desire and now appear eager to charge forth once again. This desire to keep growing is exemplified by Colony B's larvae, who went from tiny, shriveled up sad pieces of something to some of the fattest, healthiest looking larvae I've ever seen in a Tetra colony in under a week. They clearly want to keep going, and it seems Colony B is leading the charge.

Their arsenal is composed of at least 250 workers and ~100 larvae. 

 

 

 

Colony D

Despite not having a water shortage or a flooding test tube, this colony came out the weakest. While during their neglect STORM and B still had a couple weeks of growth before their resources ran out, Colony D remained relatively constant throughout my inactivity. Their worker count stagnated at roughly 150, yet unlike their sister colonies they maintained a normal sized brood pile, with ~150 respectively. I can tell they maintained their brood pile due to the fact that it has eggs, larvae, and pupae in proportionate amounts, unlike the other two who only had shriveled up small larvae. It released a few workers on occasion to keep the population constant, but they conserved their resources steadily. While they came out the smallest, they arguably handled the situation the smartest: conserving their resources instead of burning them all up in a growth streak and suddenly running out.

In spite of its small size, this colony still has the most intense reaction to being disturbed of the three. They are highly intelligent and somehow know I'm about to check on them when all I've done is take the superworms off the shelf. I don't even have to touch their enclosure, and they start swarming the outworld. They know by some combination of my shadow and the slight vibrations I cause when I pick up the superworms, and consistently jump the gun on me. The colony sends the vast majority of their worker force into the fray, and I kid you not when I say I am frightened by how fast and aggressive they are.

 

[ANTdrew]

I just fed my Pheidole pilifera a crushed up pistachio! They love it.

[rptraut]

Hello;

I give my Tetramorium colonies peanut and cashew pieces (roasted salt free) so they have something to chew on between meat meals. I also give them peanuts and cashews as a protein source that doesn’t spoil quickly while I’m on vacation or during diapause.
RPT