173 replies to this topic

[DaveJay]

I can see that, budgies just eat their brains!

[DaveJay]

I have lots of updates to do and lots of pictures to sort so I will fill the posts out retrospectively, just bear with me!

 

The new Componotus colony arrived, 8 workers, Queen and brood.

The "Gold Bum" Camponotus aeneopilosus colony arrived, Queen and perhaps 4 workers, one larger than the others, no brood that I can see. 

I set them up in food tubs, along the lines of "Nurbs Pencil Case" but using sand because I didn't want grout that wasnt fully cured, that's why I need these temporary homes in the first case.

 

Edited by DaveJay, August 19 2018 - 12:29 AM.

[DaveJay]

(pictures of the new formicariums at certain stages)

[DaveJay]

Initially my Camponotus consobrinus founding colony (7 nanitics/workers ) ate frozen bloodworms very readily but when offered mealworm pupae covered the bloodworms and were straight into the pupae. 

In both colonies the Queens emerged and ate the pupae themselves, spending night and day in the open eating from the pupae halves which contain mostly liquid. 

 

This new colony seemed to be wanting as much protein as they could get. The feeder you see on the right has frozen bloodworms in it, I added spring water and "mushed" it up and refroze it giving me red protein water with small pieces of bloodworm through it.

The Queen ate only from the pupae pieces but as you see in some of the pictures the workers continued to eat from the bloodworm feeder as well as from the pupae.

 

 

When I put the mealworm pupae halves in with the first C. consobrinus colony the workers weren't really interested but then after being in the nest for weeks the Queen came out to eat the pupae, she stayed out for about 2 days eating before going back to the nest. Once she was back into the nest the workers plugged the entrance leaving just one worker on guard. That worker then buried all other food sources.

 

As you can see, in both colonies there was a lot of the Queen "killing" the pupae going on!

 

 

A few days later I put a whole mealworm larvae in with each C. consobrinus colony but all they did is bury it, it didn't cause much excitement at all.

 

Edited by DaveJay, August 19 2018 - 5:25 AM.

[DaveJay]

As I said earlier my feeders came in, I just bought 4 of each style offered to test them out.

 

 

The small round one works best for sugar water/water as you can adjust the size of the hole because the cutout is angled, very useful.

The square design I've been using for frozen bloodworms, the trough at the bottom offers good access and the lid means the worms don't dry out as fast.

The larger round feeder I didn't even try, I know this style from keeping birds and this was just a miniature one with the same flaws, useless I thought.

 

Then I searched "Feeders" "DIY" etc etc and came across Crystals thread, read that then clicked the offshoot link where Drew took the idea of a wick and ran with it.

 

Looking at their designs I went out looking for wicks and containers. I bought very similar containers plus some assorted tiny glass jars with cork stoppers. Initially I was thinking string, wool, or actual candle wicks as a wick but I decided to by two different thicknesses of Jute, basically hessian/burlap string.

 

Once home I was looking at the containers and stuff and seeing the feeders I'd bought I thought why put a hole in the top of a container when these feeders inverted have a hole at the top that is covered by its' own roof?

 

Before Drew decided he'd print cone/pyramid shaped feeders it was deemed in the development thread that if covering the wick protruding from the top of a narrow container, a pile of sand on top of the feeder, was the worst the ants could do then it was a big improvement on most gravity feeders but by just inverting those gravity feeders and adding a wick you can avoid that altogether! How smart am I?!!! 

 

I tried both thicknesses of Jute, I left them overnight, these are the results.

 

As you can see, the thinner Jute hadn't drawn much liquid up although I daresay with time it would work, it might be superior in the end as it would perhaps respond to ambient humidity more finely. I also realised later that it was probably so dry that it had become hydrophobic and soaking in plain water first may have drastically effected the results.

 

In any case I decided to use the thicker jute, and trim the end to remove the unruly hairs.

 

There was no sign of any leakage, wiping all outside surfaces with tissues resulted in no pink colour at all.

 

 

Nope! I'm not smart!!!

 

The next day in one formicarium/outworld there was a triangular pile of sand up the side of the feeder touching the wick which drained the feeder! Unbelievable! 

Thinking that perhaps liquid had run or dripped down the side of the feeder I removed them for more testing. After 3 days no sign of any leaking at all, the sides of the feeders were still dry and clean with no moisture or sticky residue. 

So either they've had the foresight to build a ramp to reach the wick to bury it (they can easily climb to drink from it), not out of the realms of possibility, or more likely have carried a grain of sand up to the wick, it's fallen off so they've carted another grain up to the wick, that's fallen, and so on until the pile of sticky sand reached the wick at which point the feeder was drained.

Talk about determined to make a mess!

Two other colonies haven't done this, it's working fine for them, it was just one of my two Camponotus consobrinus that managed it. I daresay that even one of Drews' cone shaped feeders would have suffered the same fate if the ants were so inclined. 

I'm not totally discouraged, it still works well in most cases, but for now I'm placing them in small petri dishes in case they do it again. 

Edited by DaveJay, August 19 2018 - 5:51 AM.

[CoolColJ]

I see no pics...

[DaveJay]

I've been wanting to move the new C. consobrinus colony into their formicarium since it had finally cured fully but every time I looked either the Queen, the brood or both weren't in the tube. I brought them out to the loungeroom one night and covered the tube then shone a light onto the tub they were in but hours later the brood and Queen were never in the test tube at the same time! I gave up about 3am and put them back into the bedroom and prepared for bed. When I got into bed and checked on them everyone was in the tube together! Not being sure that my wife would appreciate finding me transferring ants in our bed at 3.30am I opted to wait, maybe I'm finally getting the hang of this marriage thing!

 

A day or two later I saw that the brood and Queen were finally in the tube together so I brought them out into the loungeroom, the Queen came out of the tube but 4 workers and the larvae and eggs were in the tube so I put the cap on and put in in the new formicarium.

The Queen was very easy to move, I herded her onto a leaf and let her make her own way. The workers were a bit harder, resisting being guided along the corner down into the new formicarium but eventually there were none left in the tub so I removed the stopper from the tube and put the lid on the formicarium, whew! All done!

I look down to see one of the nanitics on my shirt! I scooped her up and thankfully didn't hurt her.

(pics of the formicarium at stages then pics with the colony in)

[DaveJay]

I see no pics...

I've been having trouble editing pics on my netbook and it's too cold to sit at my pc, plus it took almost 4 hours to upload 10 pics to my gallery this arvo so I'm just making notes about the sequence of events atm so later I can fill out each post and add pictures.

It's just getting so far behind that I had to do something, I've felt like I couldn't post updates until I catch up which has just been putting me further and further behind.

So if you check back later the posts will have pics and been elaborated upon.

[CoolColJ]

4 hours? wow your on 56k modem?

[DaveJay]

I ordered Camponotus sp. "Cairns" mainly because the description said that they can be coloured by feeding them different colours of sugar water, like what you see as "Jellybean Ants". I thought this might interest the family more.

 

They arrived, very small but a beautiful tan colour with banding, the Queen is absolutely gorgeous!

I haven't seen much movement after the initial exploration stage, I haven't seen much from the Camponotus aeneopilosus gold bum either but then the ants are kept on my beside table so I don't see them until I go to bed. The 'consobrinus are active then but the others aren't which is why nocturnal species suit me better atm but in mid spring/summer I'll move them to the loungeroom so I'll see more of them then.  

Edited by DaveJay, August 18 2018 - 3:10 AM.

[DaveJay]

4 hours? wow your on 56k modem?

Nah, it's this Netbook, my arms get tired from winding the crank handle to keep it going.

[CoolColJ]

that Camponotus sp. "Cairns" looks like C.humilior to me

[DaveJay]

that Camponotus sp. "Cairns" looks like C.humilior to me

It does to me too, at least it looks like pictures of C. humilior I've seen. There must be some differences that makes Paul question it though, I'm assuming he knows his ants.

 

For others, this is one of the pictures from the advertisement I purchased from, not my picture.

The Queen I have looks much like this but this picture does not do justice to the richness or variation in the brown colouring she has. 

 

Edited by DaveJay, August 19 2018 - 4:24 AM.

[DaveJay]

4 hours? wow your on 56k modem?

Earlier today I timed pictures as taking 4 to 5 minutes to upload, just now (after 10pm) they were taking 4 to 5 seconds, same computer, same connection, same sized files, so I don't know why it's so slow sometimes. I often spend hours at a friends place where they have high speed wifi and it can still be very slow during the day, maybe it's just Telstra, I don't really know.

[DaveJay]

While the Queen was feeding on the mealworm pupae I witnessed the "fighting" behaviour going on again. It was hard to get good pictures but one worker started dragging a nanitic around again. It really looks like fighting, there's lots of "gaster action", looking like they do when attacking. About 5 minutes into it another worker joined the struggle, the small worker was dragged around the enclosure, sometimes backwards and upside down with both workers looking like they were spraying acid on it, curling to touch it repetitively with the tips of their gasters. They didn't seem to be dragging it too or from anywhere, just up and down the walls and all over the enclosure, they really did look like they were trying to kill it to me. After a while the second to join the fight left again just leaving the one worker dragging the smaller one around again. Eventually it just left the attacked worker laying curled up and not moving, later it was gone but I still don't know if it died or not. It seemed like it was the same small nanitic that was ganged up on last time I saw this behaviour but I can't really be sure.

[DaveJay]

20th August 2018

Last night I thought I'd get tough on the two Camponotus colonies still in tubs because apart from the one larger Gold Bum worker I never see them. I figured a week was long enough for the last bits of grout to cure.
Transfer was very easy because as usual both the ants of colonies were all in their test tubes, except for the usual Gold Bum worker, but she went in easily enough. I took a few pictures then realised I'd put them in the wrong enclosures. As usual though they were still in their test tubes so swapping them over was easy.
Only the one Gold Bum went exploring, it must be the designated scout and guard. I noticed that one of the mesh circles covering the ventilation holes had come loose on one side, I do remember one of the lids catching on a cloth so it must have pulled up a little. Of course it seemed that as soon as I noticed it the Gold Bum went from hole to hole testing whether it could get out, it couldn't but it made me nervous, I wanted to go to sleep without worrying. I got out of bed and got another lid but the ant stayed on the lid for a long time. Eventually I just put one lid on top of the other one and went to sleep, at least it would just be trapped in the space between the two lids if it managed to escape the first lid. It didn't happen anyway.
I also saw a C. sp. "Cairns" worker out of the tube exploring for the first time.

I'm happy with the mix of ants I have now, two C. consobrinus colonies, nice large ants with orange bodies and black heads and gasters.
C. A... Gold Bum, medium sized black ants with gold gasters.
C. sp. "Cairns, medium ants with nice light brown colours and banded gasters that apparently take on the colour of the sugars they eat.

[CoolColJ]

Why do you need 2 consobrinus colonies? I can understand it if you found them, and were rare, but you bought two?

[DaveJay]

Why do you need 2 consobrinus colonies? I can understand it if you found them, and were rare, but you bought two?

Yeah, when I got the first lot I was really pleased, both with the deal and the ants themselves so I bought another lot. The first had 7 workers, the second 8, plus both had eggs and larvae and they were both sold for the price of a lone Queen.
The way I figure I'll get my money back when, not if, I collect Queens myself. I liked the idea of an instant small colony in an enclosure rather than a lone Queen in a test tube. The money came from selling scorpion starter kits so I saw it as swapping scorpions for ants. I can't lose out, I can just sell them on and probably make a profit.
I generally always buy multiples of what I like if there's a good deal, I've learned over the years that it's better that way, you cover your bases in case of a loss, buying another later might cost you twice as much, and you simply can't lose, you sell the excess later which are now bigger and worth more to buy the next thing.
Laughing either way mate!
I do want two colonies anyway so I can get a better grip on their preferences, they seemed like the best ants for me, I'm actually thinking I should buy one more lot while I can.

[CoolColJ]

oh OK, just more work to do

 

Yeah I still wish I had gotten 5 antipodum queens instead of the 2 I had at the time. Especially now that one has died...

This was my dream species

Edited by CoolColJ, August 20 2018 - 4:59 AM.

[DaveJay]

When you have 50+ scorpions, 30+ tarantulas, centipedes, beetles, multiple fish tanks, frogs, lizards, tortoises, chickens, dogs, cats, kids and a wife, a few extra ants don't seem like a problem!

The scorpions, centipedes, lizards and tarantulas are still dormant/brumating/buried atm so I was bored and thought ants might be interesting if I keep them warm.

Edited by DaveJay, August 20 2018 - 5:53 AM.