5 replies to this topic

[Tmhernandez77]

So, I got a V. pergandei from Dspdrew, and the queen was beautiful. She had two small nanitics and a ton of brood. Unfortunately, soon after taking them home and setting them up in a warm dark box, I had a flood. They were initially housed in simple test tube setup, and after the flood my 2 workers died.

Now I have them in a founding chamber from Ants2formicariums, and that has 2 water test tubes attached and a reasonably sized foraging area where I can put seeds and honey. I'll post pictures once I figure out how. I transferred the brood manually (bad idea, I lost/damaged about half) and thought all was good. Well, the queen must have been stressed, and she ate the next worker to eclose. I was getting super worried something was very wrong. However, much to my delight the next worker came out fine, and if alive and well. I believe I will have another in about a day or so, so I am now confident the colony has stabilized.

Current concerns: the queen is laying eggs at a very slow pace, is this normal for them? Is seeds and honey sufficient or do they need insect protein as well? This could be why the egg laying rate is so slow. I'll try a fruit fly, see if they take it.

[Tmhernandez77]

This is the box I have my ants housed in currently.  It's a headphone box lined with aluminum foil.  Inside I have a small reptile heating pad, and it's attached to a thermostat that regulates the temperature.  Unfortunately my little heater hasn't been able to keep it quite warm enough, but as we get closer to summer I think it will be ok.

 

 

There she is, in her test tube.  I am currently using a cell phone camera with a 5x lens, but I'm getting a Pixel 2 as soon as it comes out.  Any photography advice would be awesome, I've never really been able to take good pictures of anything.

 

 

The Ants2Formicariums founding chamber I am using.  It has two test tubes connected, both are just water because they didn't seem interested in a sugar test tube yet, I'll try again later.  I can lift off the acrylic lid and drop seeds, insects, and place drops of honey, etc quite easily.  It also makes it very easy to swap test tubes.  The ants can breath just fine, and it keeps a nice level of humidity.  Also, so far it has been escape proof, which was a requirement from my wife >.<.

 

 

Very small brood pile with 1 worker.  This colony has never had more than 2 workers at a time.  First 2 died to a flood, 3rd worker died of an unknown cause.  Currently one worker, 1 pupae, 1 larvae, and several eggs.

 

 

And there she is exploring the foraging area.  She moves very erratically, and is very agitated by light.  I keep the colony in the dark 99% of the time, and just open the box to feed and occasionally check on the colony.

 

 

And that's what I have so far, I'll add pictures later on as the colony grows.

 

Currently, I keep them at about 88 degrees Fahrenheit.  I have feed them small seeds, pieces of chicken and turkey, as well as a couple fruit flies.  They seem to like the fruit flies the best, and have so far not been interested in any seeds.  This is odd to me, since they are a harvester ant species.  I am trying to see if they are interested in poppy seeds and amaranth seeds next, if they don't take I'll try bluegrass seeds.

 

Any suggestions and questions would be greatly appreciated.  I'm currently in the middle of designing a small dirt formicarium to see if they are more successful in that sort of setup.  If they don't grow within the next month or two, I'll move them.

Edited by Tmhernandez77, June 6 2017 - 10:06 AM.

[Tmhernandez77]

Well this colony has stagnated.  One pupae is ready to eclose, but other than that it doesn't seem to be growing.  I just began raising some of the small species of flightless fruit flies to try and feed to them.  Additionally, the test tube they were living in dried out, and they refused to move for a couple days, so I had to manually move them into a new tube.  I decided to again confine this colony to a single test tube, I think giving them the foraging space too early was a definite hindrance to their development.  She is laying eggs again now, hopefully I will have something to show for it soon.

[anttics]

I'm new to this so I'm guessing here. maybe you gave them too much space. I have 110 ants of pergandei in a space a bit smaller than yours in a single test tube. I the next week. almost 20 more will awake. them I will take them to a dual test tube in a container a bit bigger. the queen has to feel safe to lay eggs. the more worker she has the more safe she feels and will lay eggs. then again this species are semi claustral and need some space to forage. you need to check the journals from drew and Nurbs.

[dspdrew]

...then again this species are semi claustral and need some space to forage.

 

I'm pretty sure these queens are fully-claustral.

[nurbs]

I'm a busy guy, so don't have all the journals like Drew does (read them if you haven't, it's a good resource). But I do have experience in rearing these. My largest colony from this year is at least 800 workers now. Found them the same time and location Drew found his.

 

If your temps are what you say they are and the queen isn't doing anything, try changing her environment. This species is relatively easy, and they should be growing fast. It could just well be you've got a dud queen that just happens to be fertile. Some queens are just fail moms and there's not a lot you can do about it.