2 replies to this topic

[Aquaexploder]

I give my P. imparis sugar water and they love it. When I try to feed them fruit flies for protein they just freak out and run around for a while. What should I do?

Update: They have settled down now but they are just ignoring the fruit fly.

Edited by Aquaexploder, July 30 2017 - 8:51 AM.

[Tyler_Fishman]

I'm assuming this is a testube setup, keep feeding the sugar water solution until the colony has exceeded a decent amount of workers
I'm assuming this is a testube setup, keep feeding the sugar water solution until the colony has exceeded a decent amount of workers

[Reevak]

I feed mine a part of a superworm and a mixture of honey and sugar water (soaked into a balled up napkin or cotton or anything that will soak it up). The workers may seemed freaked out at first when you put it in the test tube and may even try to attack it but they'll come around once they realize what it is. Mine have at least. They usually grab the brood and move around a bit while some workers scout out the end of the test tube (running away once they see my tweezers). However some of my colonies don't react much until after the food is all in the test tube and then they slowly walk over while moving their heads and antennae around. For about 5 weeks now I have been giving them 1 superworm part a week and 2 new sources of sugar (one next to the superworm part and one new one after I take out the superworm part a few days later). Also, if none of the workers have any food in them, that should be a good indication that they need to be fed something (it is pretty easy to tell with this species as you can see the food in their gasters), but if you feed them like I do then you will see that they have plenty of workers with large gasters even when it is time to give them more food. They don't need as much as I give them, but I like to make sure that they have plenty of workers with lots of food to last them a long while.

 

Edit: I feed my colonies superworms over mealworms because they are more active, easier to gut load, and I have read that they are more nutritious as well. They are also larger so I can use one to feed many of my small colonies instead of multiple mealworms.

Edited by Reevak, August 1 2017 - 10:22 PM.