3 replies to this topic

[Mettcollsuss]

I have a fairly large tank that I'm planning on turning into a vivarium. I don't have the exact measurements for the tank, but I''m estimating it's somewhere around 3.5 by 1.5 by 1.5 feet. Of the ants I have, I've decided that Formica subsericea would be best fit. What size should the colony be at before I add them in?

[Skwiggledork]

I'm a complete newbie, so hopefully someone with more experience can chime in, but in the wild colonies don't have a limited space, so you could put them in at any size and they will survive. With that said you probably want to wait until you have a pretty large colony, just so you see them.

[FeedTheAnts]

Twenty workers is a perfect size for introducing a colony to a terrarium. you won't see them to much at first but they will grow super fast. I put a colony of Formica in a tank in May-ish, they only had twenty workers but now they have at least 150-175.

[Connectimyrmex]

That colony size sounds fine for a terrarium. You just need to keep in consideration that you'll have to move them eventually and that you'll have tons of displaced dirt dug out by the colony (so you'll need to have relatively few plants and some sort of tool to remove the dirt)