471 replies to this topic

[Forestflamboyant]

Howdy! I'm amazed and blown away at the same time and feel the perplexity in the logic of it all. If ants were so simple to keep we all would be doing it and each species has their quirks about them. I've learned this year that you can't put liometopum occidentale queens together. Because they just go at it like Japanese fighting fish until one is destroyed. We all learn from the mistakes and it's awesome that we are able to share the information for the future!

[PTAntFan]

I am sorry to hear about this, Drew.  I hope the colony full recovers.

[dspdrew]

Update 6-28-2015
 
A little update on the colony that had the civil war:
 
They have completely cleaned up the mess now, and I see them adding new substrate to the fungus.
 
They moved all the dead to the out world, leaving not even the tiniest piece behind. It's amazing how clean they got it.
 

 

[LC3]

Out of all the myrmicinae ants leaf cutters seem to be the least stupidest even if they just had a war. 

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:05 PM.

[dspdrew]

(I see you move them a lot for some reason)

 

Actually this is the first time I've ever moved them except for out of a founding setup.

 

 

Not sure the point in force moving them, if all it does is cause them to fight and/or cause them intense stress.

 

Neither do I. The problem is nobody knew this.

 

 

Most ants don't do well at all when force moving.

 

That's not what I have seen. I have healthy colonies with well over a thousand workers that I have force moved plenty times without any signs of harm. A healthy colony in the wild that has its nest destroyed will rebuild and go on living like nothing ever happened.

[Gregory2455]

Out of all the myrmicinae ants leaf cutters seem to be the least stupidest even if they just had a war. 

I do not know about that... I forcefully move all my colonies including my large ones like Solenopsis and Tetramorium. None of them ever have wars. I am sticking to my original theory that this species has a glitch of some sort in their alarm pheromones.

[Tpro4]

GG Well Played Drew, you should have it easy. Try not to cause anymore civil wars

[dspdrew]

I won't be disturbing Acromyrmex too much anymore.

[Tpro4]

i saw a couple for a. versicolor colonies when i went camping, they might have been one large ine but IDK, i didn't want to dig them up after what happened to Drew.

[dspdrew]

Ah. You were in Joshua Tree National Park right? Wasn't it a little hot for camping?? Yeah there is no point trying to dig up Acromyrmex out there; you'll never be able to dig deep enough. The queens are really easy to find too. It's just getting a successful fungus garden that is not always so easy.

[Foogoo]

Ah. You were in Joshua Tree National Park right? Wasn't it a little hot for camping?? Yeah there is no point trying to dig up Acromyrmex out there; you'll never be able to dig deep enough. The queens are really easy to find too. It's just getting a successful fungus garden that is not always so easy.

In terms of humidity and other growing conditions or do you mean it's not always easy for the ants to grow it properly?

 

Speaking of fungus, I see a lot of references to catching newly mated queens before they lose the fungus pellet. If you were to catch a queen sans pellet, can you give her a piece of an existing fungus? Or does she need her pellet?

[dspdrew]

What is hard is getting a queen who has her fungus pellet, and successfully starts to grow it. Yes, you can give a queen fungus from another queen's fungus garden and she will grow it just fine. That is how I got all of mine going. I only had one queen who successfully got a fungus garden growing.

[dspdrew]

Fixing up some new substrate.
 

 

 
 
Roses: Their favorite.

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:05 PM.

[dspdrew]

I just gave them some and all the colonies went CRAZY over it. Every other worker was carrying a piece of it in to stick on the fungus.

[BrittonLS]

Apparently these ants have some other interesting behaviors. Like "suicidal punishment." I wonder if that was related to your little war. https://www.google.c...lojjthNpCXXIVdA

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:05 PM.

[Foogoo]

Could also be that they are highly sensitive to environmental changes. For example, fish will die if the water temperature suddenly changes +/- a few degrees (remember floating the bag in the tank?) while humans won't be affected, maybe get a cold when it changes +/- 15 degrees. Maybe the sudden change of the environment or something in the environment caused them to "glitch". 

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:05 PM.