9 replies to this topic

[Kalidas]

So as many of you know I have some Acromyrmex Versicolor Queens and one of which is doing particularly good at tending to her Fungi garden and laying eggs, which is making me think of future plans for the (hopefully) future colony.

So I know the common thing is the large clear plastic bins with hydrostone and water reservoir. I also joined the Leaf cutter forum site and saw many of them keep their ants in warm "baths". Basically aquariums of water heated with a water heater which regulates temp and humidity. I really like this idea because as someone brought up heating the normal way(which is really air heating) creates a never ending battle of fighting drying the fungus out.

The other part of my idea came from nature and how leaf cutter ants naturally make nests. They generally dig long tunnles that end in large round chambers for the fungus gardens normally against a hard object like tree roots or rocks to anchor the fungus to. I esspecialy was inspired by the San Diego zoo leaf cutter exibit(https://goo.gl/images/TUfd1i).

So the idea I have is to get firebrick and make single large chamber formicariums (think similar to tar heel ants hearth style) connected to one another via vinyl tubing. These formicariums would be placed on plastic platforms over a warm bath to maintain humidity and temp in the formicariums. These would be probably kept on shelves in the storage area of a large aquarium (like 75 gallons or larger(you can get some inexpensive used ones online)and then the nesting area would be connected that that large aquarium which would be the outworld.

Pros: I feel firebrick would probably hold onto moisture a lot better then plastic bins would

It's a bit closer to the ants "natural_ enviornment

There is a certain aestheticly pleasing side of it.

Cons: The brick formicaria would only have one "window" for viewing the colonies and fungus as upposed to the plastic containers having a 360 view

The brick probably wouldn't be able to fit as much fungus as say a plastic container could

So yeah that is the future idea I have, any comments, questions, or advice would be awesome. Let me know what you all think.

[StopSpazzing]

Didn't know about that water design. Where did you get that info? what temps and such do they use?

 

You could remove both sides or even all 4 sides and make a "mushroom" so you can all 4 sides if you wanted. Also, plastic prevents evaperation which means water will stay in it longer. Fireclay will breathe meaning you will lose moisture faster.

[Kalidas]

"It is really easy to provide for a new colony of Leaf Cutting Ants. Basically you need to prevent them from escaping and you need to make them warm and humid. The picture below is of a basic starter set up which, for me, ticks the boxes.

Setup https://imgur.com/a/ye7MuKH

The tank has 2 islands, one for the nest box, one for the food. Heat and humidity is provided by pouring around 7cm of water into the bottom of the tank and heating it to around 30C. The addition of a small pump ensures the ants will not escape. When the colony grows very large the whole tank can be filled with soil and the top moat becomes the escape proofing.
It is easy to replicate this idea using a normal aquarium, two bricks and a container for the nest"

This came straight from the owner and creator of the leaf cutter ants forum. He also has a published article in the "Practical Reptile Keeping" magazine detailing the exact same setup. It appears to be VERY popular among the Europeans that keep leaf cutters, nearly all of them use a similar set up though it tends to get more complicated and elaborate as the colony grows in size.

A mushroom? Maybe I'm not visualizing what you mean. Though removing both sides sounds promising. Just having like a brick border for structure sandwich between two pieces of glass for viewing.

See that's weird I thought that was a possitive, don't you kind of want the water evaporating into the air around the nest? Since plastic doesn't really hold onto water very well I figured the water would just pool up just collecting on the bottom and not defuse into the air. While the brick with it's many micro holes would have places for the water to stay in and would defuse slowly into he air... Which is something that I feel happens in natural environments in the dirt. In the ground dirt has a lot of spaces and holes where water probably collects and is slowly defused around as it evapoates up towards the sky. IE firebrick is much more absorbent then plastic and should hold onto water better... at least that's what I think, but I could be totally wrong.

Either way the water bath should help a lot with this as everything all around them would be moist and humid because water will be everywhere.

[Serafine]

You can definitely keep Acromyrmex in a regular box-shaped glass tank, I've seen people doing that a lot. Not sure about Atta but it should work with them as well. At a certain point you can't open the tank anymore and it's probably best to fix the lid so they can't lift it (duct tape should do) but that shouldn't be an issue. At the point where they fill out the entire tank moisture/humidity usually isn't an issue anymore as the ants can do that on their own, you just need some drainage layer and a port to remove excess water.

Note though that Atta can simpy walk through a water moat and climb up the other side so if you want to use this as an escape barrier you need to use oil for the moat (which unfortunately kills every ant that drops into it). Also I would absolutely NOT recommend using vinyl tubing for Atta as their soldiers can just slice through it (they can even chew though fine metal mesh so you'd need metal sheets with holes stamped/lasered into them), hard plastic tubes are the way to go for leafcutters.

 

p.s. You don't need a water bath. Most people simply put a small plastic cup (like the sawed-off bottom of a coke bottle) over the fungus and that works just fine.

Edited by Serafine, November 15 2018 - 10:41 PM.

[Kalidas]

https://www.youtube....h?v=LADgNlKp4BY
Saw this video on Ants California's thread about hydrostone formicariums. I really love his design for the Honeypot ants and was wondering if something similar (but with more space probably to make room for the fungus) could work for Acromyrmex. Then DSPdrew brought up a really scary though to me, Acromyrmex can and will chew through firebrick and so he recommended if I do in fact go along with this idea I should stick them in a plastic container. Which I think could still work with everything, just would need to submerge the container in the warm bath and the brick would work as the absorbent/nesting agent.

Edited by Kalidas, December 2 2018 - 8:27 AM.

[AntsCalifornia]

Why the warm bath?

[Kalidas]

Why the warm bath?

So I joined the leaf cutter forum and a lot of people there do that as a means to both manage temp and humidity. I mean I guess the simpler way would be to just add a petri dish with water in the brick and a heating cable or heating pads.

[Kalidas]

Ooooh I think I came up with a better idea! I could take a platic bin that's larger then the bricks (I'm thinking at least two would make a decent size formicarium if not then maybe 4) and stuff the back with sponges and that would be where I would add the water. I could also add the heat pads or cords there to keep the water warm.

[AntsCalifornia]

If you want an easy way to do this, you can just get a small plastic container and coat the bottom with plaster. That's what most leafcutter ant keepers seem to use.

[Kalidas]

If you want an easy way to do this, you can just get a small plastic container and coat the bottom with plaster. That's what most leafcutter ant keepers seem to use.

I know what most people do, but I think that using a medium like firebrick(or even hydrostone) would hold moisture better then just a plastic container and some plaster. Also such a formicarium I feel is a bit more "natural" to the kind of nests they make in the wild. Plus there is a certain aesthetic about the brick formicaria I like compared to a bare empty plastic box.