14 replies to this topic

[AntzNaTube]

Hi all! I am new to this forum. I am currently keeping my journals at antscanada, but recently acquired an atta texana and was informed that there was more experience with fungus growers on this sight, so this is where I will be keeping hers.

This lady was caught for me by a friend in western louisiana. He just put her in a Tupperware with some moist soil in the bottom. However, the container is ridiculously small and I would like to move her into a more suitable environment once I return home in a week or 2. The issue however is that she can not escape this container on her own and I do not want to damage her, the egg clutch, or her small delicate fungus garden in the process. Does anyone have any good formicarium and/Or moving ideas/advice? Suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Below are a couple pictures I took to illustrate how comically small her container is and to show that she seems to be fairly content by showing her egg clutch and fungus garden.

[Jonathan21700]

The container looks perfect to me.

[AntzNaTube]

How so? It's so tiny there is no way it will support her, fungus, and workers very long. I am in the process of getting a formicarium from drew for this lady. You don't think it would be better suited for her? When do you think wpuld be best to mover into it? And any advice on how to go about moving her? That dirt in the bottom of the container is rather packed in, so moving it out intact really isn't gonna be am option.

[Jonathan21700]

If you want you can move her after she gets her first workers. Until then this size will perfectly suit her if the humidity levels are proper of course.

[ultraex2]

This probably will not work because from what I have seen the fungus gardens will grow to the point of reaching the top of the enclosure and he will no longer be able to remove the lid without damaging the fungus.  I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that it's very difficult if not impossible to move the colony because they won't be able to take the fungus with them.

 

If anything, you would want to drill a hole in the side of this, leave the lid closed, and attach a "better" housing to it so that it can grow/move in there. You could also just place this container into a bigger one that is more suited to housing her.

Edited by ultraex2, June 15 2017 - 12:56 PM.

[AntzNaTube]

I agree. Unfortunately that is what I figured my course of action will eventually be.

[Batspiderfish]

Drill a hole in another lid and just swap them out. You can size it to a piece of vinyl tubing and keep it plugged with cotton. I would be very unwilling to move the fungus garden myself, although if the setup is attached to a suitable formicarium, the ants may well "seed" in a new location.

Edited by Batspiderfish, June 15 2017 - 1:19 PM.

[AntzNaTube]

Drill a hole in another lid and just swap them out. You can size it to a piece of vinyl tubing and keep it plugged with cotton.

Hopefully, I'll have the formicarium from drew by the time she has workers and I'll just be able to put the container in the nesting room without the lid. If I don't have it before then, I will have to resort to something like that.

Until there are workers though there is really no reason, because I open it twice a day for air exchange. The lid actually helps maintain humidity right now.

Edited by AntzNaTube, June 15 2017 - 1:22 PM.

[cpman]

Good luck with them!

 

I wasn't able to get any of my queens to be successful. Mine got fungus gardens the size of a pea, and some larvae, but ended up dying for no particular reason.

My guess is that the humidity dropped too much when I left for a week long trip.

 

How are you keeping the temperature constant?

[AntzNaTube]

Good luck with them!

I wasn't able to get any of my queens to be successful. Mine got fungus gardens the size of a pea, and some larvae, but ended up dying for no particular reason.
My guess is that the humidity dropped too much when I left for a week long trip.

How are you keeping the temperature constant?

Actually, I will probably catch some heat for this but, I'm not. I keep her container outside in a shaded area in attempt to simulate natural conditions as much as possible. The way I see it, she is adapted to handle the temperatures of my region, so until she is established, that's how I'm going to do it.

However, I did get the formicarium from drew. And I probably will be hooking her small Tupperware up to it soon to allow her the option to move into it. The humidity will be much easier to control in the formicarium after all.

[YsTheAnt]

How is this colony?

[Connectimyrmex]

You could lick a toothpick to make it sticky and pick up the eggs with that. Then use a little baby spoon to scoop out the fungus. You can then pick up the queen by hand (nudging her antenna with a finger)

[mbullock42086]

There are actually alot of precautions needed for rearing these that few people take into consideration, which is why they almost always fail- to rear these, you have to focus on keeping that fungus happy- which requires a completely sterile environment.

  You must somehow sterilize the substrate you use, otherwise the risk of the fungus being infected by penicillium is almost 100%  Generally the only way substrate can be sterilized this way is by pressure-cooking it, however coming into contact with that substrate will infect it.  I would personally avoid any kind of soil medium for these, vermiculite would probably be alot better.  You would also be wise to run a good hepa-filter right next to the colony, which will help reduce the chance of infection.   Many people are doomed to fail the instant they collect a queen- they failed to use sterile containers and tools, and infect her with penicillium spores right off the bat and still fail, even after all the precautions I mentioned were taken.

[Hunter]

that is a big queen

[Mettcollsuss]

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO JEALOUS! I want leafcutters so badly! Well, good luck. Keep us updated.