30 replies to this topic

[AntaholicAnonymous]

My apologies I saw this just now.

I made a step by step on this setup.
May this link provide answers

https://www.formicul...tural-ant-tank/

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I wasn't sure if they are alive over the winter but they seem to wake up from hibernation slowly.

From my experience so far these ants keep their surface activity to the bare minimum at this colony size so I rarely see more than one or two running around even tho they have decent numbers... Hopefully.

I put in some chia seeds and 3 crickets and they just vanished.
Never saw them take it and I checked in often but at least they do their thing.
I never even found a nest entrance oddly enough.
I'll just make sure their setup is watered, their stomachs full and they have enough heat.
The rest is their job.

I did a overhaul on my first tank and I thought about starting this tank over from zero because I like the first one more. lol
Instead I relaxed and decided to take what I have and I'll try to upgrade it majorly starting tomorrow.
I'll post some pics soon.

They have the space they need to become a massive colony and I hope to see the beginning of that this year and I'd love to see some majors

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Another small update.
I just wanted to start cunstruction and I spotted the nest.

The plants died so I wanted to pull them out and what I saw was tons of ants and brood under the soil.
Now I do know for sure they are doing good.
It's a shame that they chose the ugliest spot but I'll strategically place heating elements that hopefully will make them move.

It was nice to see them tho. I was worried that they are dying off but they are as healthy as I was hoping for.

[skocko76]

When you wake up in the middle of the night to pee, check them out. You might be surprised. My Messor wasmanni are foraging in the middle of the night during winter.
As soon as I turn on the light they withdraw to the safety of the nest.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

They are more active at night for sure.

During the day they have 2 out foraging usually, now it's 3am and I counted 6.
They are so efficient in getting the seeds that most of the work happens underground.
When they grow and need more resources to produce the majors is where I expect the action to ramp up.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Its been a year since the last update and a lot has happened since.

They are alive and growing but I had some major issues which were all my fault so let me begin to explain.

I was expressing my worries in my last posts. I was really questioning if that large of a setup was that smart of an idea for their size and speed of development.
Long story short I set up a small terrarium, dug them up and picked out every last ant by hand. Took 1,5 hours with only some injured ants. Priority one was to get the queen unharmed.
That's the only part that doesn't forgive any errors.

From that they made a full recovery and were switching into 2nd gear for brood production so after. They dug against the glass so I had full vision of them which is exactly what I needed.

Now I was faced with another setup problem that became a big issue more to that on the post below following in a couple minutes.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

That was the update of what happened in the meantime now I'll explain the present situation.

As their colony grew (300 to 350 ants by now) they outgrew the setup and since I haven't set their terrarium up properly it didn't have a drainage.
The problem is that they nested on the bottom so if I watered the soil they'd be flooded every time.
Messor produce tons of waste and the small setup can't house a proper clean up crew.
I had to rehouse them immediately.

First I made them a bridge to a new and properly done terrarium 3x the size of theirs but they wouldn't move at all.
Since the issues became more urgent in their setup I decided to do what already worked once and dumped them out and again hand picked all of them.
That was yesterday.

I hope they can recover once more and I'm sorry for putting them in that stressful situation once again. I made some bad choices on how to house them in the past.

Their current setup is perfect for their needs. Pictures will follow once they settled. Some first majors with blood red heads start to appear so I'm excited about them hopefully developing into the empire they are supposed to become within the next years.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

This season showed me how resilient messor ants are to my past mistakes.

After they moved into their new setup they immediately dug down to the drainage, chewed through the mesh and live there ever since.
I had an idea they would do that so I designed the setup around that issue.
Basically I put flat rocks in the soil in specific positions so I can predict where and how they build so I don't flood the drainage when watering. They like bigger chambers so the rocks prevent them from collapsing. I let chia seeds grow out regularly to make a root structure which is also for stability of their nest

I made a dedicated area for the cleanup crew (tons of springtails and some small white isopods) they serve as a sustainable food source to supplement what I feed them. It's like it's own little established eco system.

I had some initial issues with the colony because I had no experience with messor.
Now that I know them well I was able to tailor a setup around their needs and I accurately predicted how they'll use it which makes a big difference in natural setups.

I expect them to explode in numbers in the next season.

[ANTdrew]

Photos?

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Sure



This is their home.
The "forest" in the back is the clean up crews home. That's where I water the setup. The entrance to the nest is on the left in front of the border of the forest.
On the back right is the trash pile under the red foliage.
They had issues moving on sand on an incline so i covered the surface with stones. Also gives the foraging space more surface area






Under the forest are layers of the substrate the springtails came in and layers of tree bark.
Bark chips create little chambers under the soil where the cleanup crew can live and breed safe from the ants... Mostly.
It also catches the water and keeps it from pooling up or draining into nest entrances flooding everything like in their last setup.






They do have a good amount of majors but they seem to prioritize making a lot of ants rather than expensive majors I hope that'll change a bit next season






The brood piles are on the bottom of the drainage and spread throughout different chambers. The seed storage is in the dry parts of the drainage. You can see some seeds that sprouted when it got too damp in that area.






I placed flat rocks against the wall under the soil so they build chambers where I can see them.
This is the first chamber when you enter the nest and that's where they process food.
Here they are breaking down chia seeds. They'll do that as a group working on a batch of the dough they make together.

This picture is older and the chambers have grown a lot but they are starting to hibernate and you can't see empty chambers on pictures very well.
As they prepare to hibernate they'll close the entrances and partially fill the chambers up that are not used over the winter. They'll dig it back out next season

[T.C.]

I admire your ability to make it all look so natural.