13 replies to this topic

[Hubert]

Hi

 

 

I want to show my Manica rubida colony history. I bought alone queen on several last day of april 2018.

 

IMG_8804 by Hubert Kozaczuk, on Flickr

 

IMG_8894 by Hubert Kozaczuk, on Flickr

 

IMG_20181121_230308 by Hubert Kozaczuk, on Flickr

 

IMG_20200118_115357 by Hubert Kozaczuk, on Flickr

 

IMG_20200216_094441 by Hubert Kozaczuk, on Flickr

 

IMG_20200228_225604 by Hubert Kozaczuk, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

[AntsDakota]

Nice colony! Manica isn’t mentioned very much on this forum. Good to have some variety.

Edited by AntsDakota, March 13 2020 - 6:53 AM.

[Hubert]

Thanks!

 

maybe I'll try to give you some information about their breeding
From what I've noticed, they like quite high humidity, so cork nests are suitable for them.
As for the food, of course, honey. As protein, they prefer to eat small crickets, cockroaches, which they can take to the nest alone.

[FSTP]

Really nice looking formicarium! and the ants really seem to like it!

[AntsDakota]

How do you hydrate it? In my experience cork doesn’t absorb water, or is this a different type of cork?

[ponerinecat]

Wow, Manica is one of my favorite large myrmicines. Rarely see people keep them though.

[Hubert]

I pour water from above, with a needle. On the left side it flows down a small tunnel and irrigates the lower part of the cork.

At the very beginning, when the cork was dry, he didn't want to absorb water, but after a few hours he absorbed it without any problem.

[Hubert]

At this moment it looks like this - a lot of pupae

Attached Images

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Edited by Hubert, March 14 2020 - 12:14 PM.

[Thunder_Birds]

I'll say, wow!

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Hey I keep manica rubida too.
I'd really try to give them fruit flies if you haven't yet.
Since I give mine flies they don't take anything else.

Do you have one queen or multiple?
I know they are polygynous at a larger colony size but I wonder at what size you can add a queen there's not too much on Google about them.

[Hubert]

Hey I keep manica rubida too.
I'd really try to give them fruit flies if you haven't yet.
Since I give mine flies they don't take anything else.

Do you have one queen or multiple?
I know they are polygynous at a larger colony size but I wonder at what size you can add a queen there's not too much on Google about them.

 

How old, and how many workers have your colony?

My colony is 2 years old, about 300 workers. I think I'll try to add another queen in a year or two, but I don't know if it'll work. Colonies are oligogynus, so queens occupy different, distant chambers, without direct contact with each other. At least theoretically, and I don't really know what it's like. The problem may be the origin of the queens. In nature, probably fertilized queens return to their home nest, but I'm not sure that either.

good opportunity to update the journal ; )

 

IMG_20200606_153851 by Hubert Kozaczuk, on Flickr

 

Screenshot_20200606-154033 by Hubert Kozaczuk, on Flickr

[Antkid12]

Nice colony! 

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I have my colony in a salad bowl with sand and soil for now so I can only guess their numbers I'm pretty sure between 70 to 80.
I have them a year now. They had a rough start with test tubes molding quick and all nanitics dying but they are doing perfect now since I gave them substrate to dig in.

I already made a 1,5m by 0,5m by 0,5m natural terrarium for them so they will have plenty of space for distant chambers that's a good 80 kilos of substrate in there.

Could be that they only take related queens but we will have to risk it for science. lol

[Hubert]

AntaholicAnonymous Good luck : )