Dang, man. Sorry to hear this. Is your colony still alive? Can you try to remove them for now, so they can recover?
In the future, I'd advise growing the colony much larger (at least 1,000 workers) before trying this. There's not a decomposer alive that would bully a full fledged RIFA colony.
Your totally right and I'm not sure if its still alive. I see foragers walking around but just here and there. I'm not even sure where their nest is. Who knows, maybe I'm overreacting but for now looks pretty dead. I'm in the Dallas Texas and getting my 10 gallon ready. I'm still going to work with this one until i no longer see ants!
How can i remove them? Just dig em out?