29 replies to this topic

[Vendayn]

So, thanks to DSPdrew (hope you don't mind me mentioning you, I see others give you a mention so I assume its fine)...I got an Acromyrmex versicolor queen (among others I'll be doing journals on, some really awesome ones).

 

She never fertilized any fungus he gave her and always rejected everything from what he said. So, from my understanding, not too long after coming home, she did just that...fertilized the fungus. She was using her gaster and rubbing/stinging the fungus (pooping I guess) and then cleaned herself after. I'll definitely be taking pictures of her and a lot of updates, along with the other queens I have. Though, this journal will probably see the most updates early on as the other colonies are pretty small or just have the queen.

 

I am not sure if its just the climate she is in that she actually has been taking care of the fungus more. I still have her in the tube he gave me of course, but it isn't in an actual ant farm yet. Me and my dad built one today however, and it will be completed tomorrow. I'll go into more into the design in a bit. But, she is in the tube with a heat lamp over her (not directly on her but light shines into the tube) and it is a bit condensed in there. I also gave her a drop of honey (which she actually drank, not sure if that is normal as usually its just fungus they eat) and a few termites (one which she actually ate a bit of) and some jade plant flowers (which she cut a piece up and stuck it on the fungus). I used a little piece of (already cooked) broccoli which she further cut up and used for the fungus. Shortly after eating a little bit of the termite and honey, she did the fertilizing (well I really hope that is what it was! Hope the poster who replied was right. Or I'll be sad. ) on the fungus. Which is really big for her, as she never did that. I am trying not to be too excited though, in case it was something else she was doing. It did look like she was fertilizing the fungus though, as it didn't seem like regular ant behavior.

 

From my understanding, even if she is taking care of the fungus...it will still be pretty dicey if she makes it or not until she gets workers (which at that point is a lot easier). So, hopefully she doesn't randomly up and die for no apparent reason.

 

And as a side note before I get to the ant farm design...I'm surprised how small she is! Compared to some of the other queens he gave me, she looks pretty small lol. I told DspDrew that and he said he was actually surprised too. I kind of pictured them to be bigger (not huge, just a bit bigger). Guess pictures and videos can fool you!

 

As for the designs and future ant farms. I'll be honest, my last one was pretty amateur and pretty embarrassing to give off to DspDrew...I don't think I'll be doing anything like that again. I was really embarrassed by such a horrible setup lol. So, while I may stick with substrate nests for some of the ants (I do like them digging and stuff, always liked that part of ant keeping)...it will look VASTLY better and much cleaner. None of what I was using with the P. megacephala as that was really embarrassing lol.

 

So in the present and future...much better looking. The Acromyrmex queen won't really have a substrate nest, but I'll have a thin layer of sand (got from the pet store) for her to do what she wants with. Not enough for her to dig in, though. And, the colonies will be in my more typical (but much better) substrate setups.

 

Now for the design itself. And, when its all setup I'll definitely be taking pictures (also of all the ants I got, not just the Acromyrmex). Dad cut pieces of polycarbonate into a (about) 2 inch tall box/rectangular kind of shape with screws attaching all the pieces (very little glue used). And then I attached the box (again with screws) into a piece of (heavy) plank of wood as a base. We just used screws inside the container as it actually kind of looked nicer than any other place we could have done it. Some super glue was used to attach the container to the wood. From there, I can expand it if needed (I hope it gets to that point. ) which I'll probably (if the queen lives) connect 2 more up. As my understanding is they need the fungus container, a foraging container and another container further off for their waste (but all that is more for when the colony is bigger).

 

So for humidity, we bought a big container with an aquarium heater thingy inside it. Its an adjustable water heater, so as cold/warm as one wants (I'm sure to a point). Filled up the container almost all the way with water, and then we'll have an air stone to bubble water up. Right now, the water sits at 90 degrees and seems to be sitting there.  From there, there will be tubing connecting that to the ant farm and we may make another hole in the ant farm with mesh or something, for air to get out so it circulates instead of being stagnant. I always like nice air flow in any of my ant farms. Granted, in this case it still has to be kept humid enough. The main thing is, the tubing connecting the homemade humidifier to the ant farm should make it nice and humid for the Acromyrmex queen's fungus. She'll still have the test tube in any case, which has water in it. Since the water is warm, it should give her tropical conditions.

 

Doing it this way, I can open up the tubing and she can get out and clean things as needed and bring "supplies" to the fungus. The humidifier also allows a lot of air flow, but also more importantly, should make it nice and humid.

 

One thing we'll have to buy is a humidity gauge so we can be more precise. But, I think that can wait till next month as I spent a LOT of money on various containers and spent TONS on supplies for this one Acromyrmex queen (who I really really hope makes it).

 

As for the fungus itself. While I've only had her and the other queens for not that long (just earlier today)...I already noticed the fungus getting a bit (just a bit) more "fluffy" looking compared to before when I got them. Not sure how fast the fungus grows, but that is supposed to be a good sign.

 

Lastly. Since I brought up the other queens a lot. I'll be making a journals on the following species. And, not sure when I'll make them, and it probably won't all be at once. It does take time to update each journal. I'll probably focus on the ones with workers to begin with and are laying the most brood. With the exception of this journal for the Acromyrmex queen.

 

I got Camponotus sp. (3 queens, though seems only one has a worker. Really cool looking and my wife loves them because they are HUGE. Light-orange color for the workers (almost see-through) and the queens have an orange gaster but darker bodies), two Pogonomyrmex rugosus queens (1 worker each) (my wife also loves these ones, probably because they are bigger), and a Crematogaster sp. (I think they are actually pretty neat, a nice amount of workers with quite a bit of brood, wife doesn't seem too fond of them but I like them. She just likes the bigger ants).

 

Expect lots of pictures.

Edited by Vendayn, February 14 2015 - 10:40 PM.

[Vendayn]

Of course, going by what DSPdrew replied with...I'll hold my excitement until I see something concrete with my Acromyrmex queen. Though he did say she has done more than he has seen her do, so that is a big something.

 

I'll keep an eye for wet substrate/fungus and see if she actually really did fertilize things. I'm pretty much leaving her alone tonight though, as she seems to be doing a lot of stuff with the stuff I've given her. I don't want to disturb her. Seems more active at night actually, which probably makes sense as they are a desert species and they tend to be active in the cooler part of the day.

 

I did kind of a few artificial things with her though (well, two)...the honey and termites. My theory I had was they may help a lot. And I did actually see her eat a part of a termite worker, and drink a bit of honey. Not sure how normal that is, as I didn't think Leafcutter ants ate anything but fungus. Then again, I never saw anywhere about anyone trying to feed their colonies termites or honey. In the short term, seemed like it may have helped. But, I'll take Dspdrew's advice and hold my excitement for now.

 

(edit)

Yeah, the fungus is a bit (like I said, just a bit) fluffier than it was. Even my wife noticed from before so it wasn't just my eyes. I guess I'll just have to see what it does when I wake up tomorrow and over the next week or two.

Edited by Vendayn, February 7 2015 - 8:55 PM.

[Vendayn]

So, we ran into some design issues. We'll have to redo the setup completely if she gets workers.

 

Temp is a bit low (77 degrees, but in the day it would warm up), and humidity is a bit high (90 percent humidity. I did a couple tweaks to see if it goes down at all).

 

But, here are pictures of the setup. I removed the bigger water dish in the picture and switched it with a smaller one and moved it away from the heat lamp.

 

The homemade humidifier (it does help a bit, but was only getting it to 70% humidity. It does provide air flow though.):

 

And here is the actual ant farm. Forgot what the sides were made of, but the bottom/top are polycarbonate. You can't see through the sides, but since the ant farm is completely open...I can look through the top and see everything. So, doesn't bother me the sides are blocked. It kind of provides a better nest for the queen anyway. Also, the ant farm is sitting flat on the board now. I had a heating pad under it (before putting the queen in), but we thought that was a terrible idea. It did provide exact temperature we needed, but was making the floor too hot. I don't want cooked fungus.

 

 

Here, you can see some of the stuff inside. That thermometer in there is supposed to take temperature (but it is wrong), however it also does humidity which is vastly more accurate. I'll need to buy an actual humidity gauge at some point.

 

 

The far left is the temperature inside the ant farm (it is wrong though), and right next to it is the humidity (which is correct). However, the humidity dropped a lot after taking this picture once the garage cooled off. It rose to 90% before I put in a smaller water bowl. Temp was around 77.7 last I looked, still tweaking the position the heat lamp is supposed to be.

 

As for the fungus. It definitely has grown a bit and puffed out, and the queen has stuck more stuff on it. I'll see what it looks like tomorrow, if its grown at all. In a more humid environment, it should grow a lot better. Last night it was all fluffy, but it got a bit dry in the test tube and kind of flattened out. Seems after putting the tube inside the ant farm, it has gotten that fluffy appearance again.

 

However, I'll have to totally redesign this if she gets close to worker stage. I'll probably copy DspDrew's design, with water on the bottom and a sponge connecting some type of foam stuff (like in his pictures) with a similar setup to his. Seems to work well for him. This design DOES work, but it wouldn't be very good with workers. It is possible we tweak it just right and it works out better, but we'll see. The biggest problem isn't so much the temperature, but getting the humidity right. So far, it is either too much or far too little.

 

I did have to put her in a bit soon before it was fully tested and prepared. But, it is close enough and the fungus in the test tube was looking a bit dry. Like I said though, it got back the healthy appearance pretty quick after the tube was put in the ant farm design. The queen even started caring for it properly again, she was sort of ignoring it before. After a bit of time in the humid container, she started I guess, fertilizing it again. So, it seems humidity is SUPER important compared to everything else. Last night the tube was more moist, and the fungus was really healthy and she was caring for it. Then today, it was dry and she was mostly ignoring it. So, that wasn't a good size. But, now it is back to being good.

 

Still, I hope it drops a few humidity degrees, as 90% I think is far too high. That seems to be the most challenging part.

Edited by Vendayn, February 9 2015 - 1:18 AM.

[Vendayn]

Also, she took a tiny piece of fungus sometime this evening and attached it to a piece of substrate Dspdrew provided her. I can see it attached to the substrate piece. From my understanding, that is normal and is supposed to happen (so it is a good sign). It is close to the main piece of fungus, but not attached to it.

[dspdrew]

90% humidity is just fine. The fungus needs the highest humidity possible.

[Vendayn]

Ah, okay. I didn't know if that was too high or not. I know if its too high, the fungus can die. At least that is what I read over on the German/European forums about raising them. However, that was more with Atta and not so much Acromyrmex. And, I guess Atta are a bit more needing exact conditions than Acromyrmex need.

 

In any case, it is stable at 86% humidity, which seems perfect. Temperature seems a bit low though. I noticed if humidity goes up, temp goes down and if temp is high, humidity goes too low. It is supposedly at 73.7 degrees according to the thermometer. Seems a bit low.

 

Also, I woke up to find the queen off hidden in the corner of the water dish, hiding in the shadows. Just sitting there. If she does that again, I'll be putting her back in the tube (again) and blocking it off with paper or something that still allows humidity in. Not sure if that is normal for them, as I guess they do forage. But, I don't want her abandoning the fungus. I put her back and she went back to taking care of it again. Maybe I need to give her a bit of shadow in the tube for her to hide in, which I'll go and try.

 

(Update: I ended up blocking it with a piece of a paper napkin. I did leave a little gap so humidity can still go in. No more exploring for the queen and going off into corners. )

Edited by Vendayn, February 9 2015 - 1:01 PM.

[Chromerust]

I wouldn't recommend you mess with them that much. Just let them be ants and do their thing. The temperature is fine, actually once you go over 80 I noticed my fungus shrink a little. 70-80 is a perfectly acceptable temperature.

[Vendayn]

Great. I wasn't too sure about the temperature. Then everything is good to go. I'll just watch what happens from now on. I'll still leave the paper stuff blocking the tube though, didn't really like her sitting in the corner with no fungus. But, she has enough stuff to feed the fungus inside the tube. I put some oats in there the other day. And last night, I put in a few termites that were already eaten today. I'll probably add new food once a week or two, if she needs it. Otherwise, I won't be messing with things anymore.

[Chromerust]

Good, I know it's hard not to want to mess with them, but it just makes bad things happen. I don't know about the oats, it could start molding or it might not. Also mites can get into oats so I hope you put it in the freezer first. Don't get alarmed, this is just a good precaution to do. Personally I only use rose and chrysanthemum petals, that is it. Oh, and maybe a little bit of goldfish flakes. It's a good idea to freeze everything you give your Acromyrmex first.

[Vendayn]

I didn't think of to freeze oats...xD I always do that with insects and stuff outside. Well, thank you for the advice. Hopefully no mites appear, but I'll definitely freeze everything first.

 

However, I think I'll avoid feeding her oats until she gets workers. She used some of it, but the rest did in fact get moldy. I wanted to leave her alone, but the oats were getting moldy in the tube and I had to take it out. It was that white stringy fungus stuff. Maybe she could have cleaned it up, but I didn't want to take the chance.

 

However, in replacement (after a few hours of freezing)...I gave her a small pinch goldfish flakes, and a couple shrimp pellets (not sure exactly what it is, but my crawdad loves them) and one Coy pellet that our Coy fish eat. Which, she actually really likes the two types of pellets as she gathered them up right away. She used one of the flakes too. So, that seems a lot better replacement than the oat bits. That molded way too fast.

 

Now I can definitely leave her alone. I don't want to keep messing with her, or the other ants non-stop...I just didn't want mold taking over the tube and killing her.

[dean_k]

Careful with oats.Oats especially reeks really bad once it starts to rot. It smells foul and it's worse than many.

Edited by dean_k, February 10 2015 - 9:58 AM.

[Vendayn]

Careful with oats.Oats especially reeks really bad once it starts to rot. Its smell foul and it's worse than many.

Yeah, I discovered that when I was taking it out. I'll probably avoid that as a food entirely. A lot better alternatives anyway.

[dspdrew]

Make sure to keep the substrate in a container that is not humid. You wouldn't really have to worry about what it is like when it rots, because it shouldn't be rotting; it should be bone dry.

[Vendayn]

How does the fungus look? I know not the most clear picture, its just taken with my phone and that is it. And my phone camera is pretty crappy for some reason. Maybe its normal with my phone.

 

Anyway, here it is. To me and my wife it looks a lot bigger than it did before. What do you think dspdrew? Notice it bigger than when you gave it to me, or is it just my and wife's eyes playing tricks? I should have taken pictures of it on the first day for comparison, but maybe your memory is better than mine.

 

Edited by Vendayn, February 10 2015 - 6:17 PM.

[Vendayn]

Also, if she remains healthy and alive. I'm guessing it can take a while to get workers? I know some ants it only takes a month, while others its 2-3 months. She is in a warm temperature (goes to 77 in the day, drops to 73 at night. And I'll have to keep an eye on it in the hottest days.) and humidity is good.

 

She seems really healthy for the most part. I do know she loves termites (I think she eats part of the termite and the rest goes onto the fungus), which I hope to get more if it rains as I didn't get a lot. I actually have no more termites. I think termites and honey helped a lot. But, if it doesn't rain again...guess that food source is gone. I might have to take a longer walk and see if I can't find any somewhere else. But, I know when I put some in (I killed them first), they disappeared really quick.

[Gregory2455]

Looking good!

[Vendayn]

Looking good!

Thanks. I've pretty much left her alone and its going a lot better. I definitely like the tube blocked, as she wandered off that one time. Guess that can happen in the wild too.

 

However, I did find mites in my oat container (well it was my mom's oats really). None are in the ant farm luckily (so I must have got lucky. None at all), but I did give my Pheidole megacephala colony to Drew and a couple weeks ago I gave them some oats. So I hope I didn't give him an ant farm with mites, as that would be pretty...well excuse the language...but pretty [censored] of me, even if I wasn't aware. I know I didn't see any at all before I gave him the colony so its probably good. Go figure I was warned about mites and oats...and it really did happen. Looks like spider mites moved in or some type of mite. In any case, no more oat container.

 

I just never thought to freeze INSIDE food before, it is pretty much habit of anything outside (including plants)...guess that is one big lesson.

 

But, back to the queen. If I recall, the fungus was a lot smaller. It looks almost as big as her now, and I don't think he gave me that big of a piece. I have a feeling she might have been hibernating (or maybe the termites+honey gave her the boost she needed), since your journal Greg you said one of your queens did the same sort of thing. No workers or brood for...I think 2 months or something? Then you got workers. I know Drew said she wasn't caring for the fungus at all for him, so maybe it could have been a humidity or temperature thing. In any case...I really hope to see workers. As far as I know, once she gets workers...its pretty much smooth sailing from there.

[dspdrew]

The fungus looks about the same size to me, but it still looks healthy.

[Vendayn]

The fungus looks about the same size to me, but it still looks healthy.

I think it may have puffed out a bit, but then again my memory is bad so maybe it is the same size. At least it still looks healthy to you, if she wasn't caring for it would the fungus have died by now?

 

(Quick update: It isn't just my eyes, it definitely is more puffed out than it was. It hasn't grown big or anything, but it is definitely more filled in than it was and a bit puffier. Maybe it is how the picture came out. It definitely is more "solid" and puffier. I'm pretty sure of that.)

Edited by Vendayn, February 10 2015 - 9:01 PM.

[Vendayn]

I have exciting news!
 

The Acromyrmex queen has an egg! Really hard to see on the fungus, but it is definitely there. I won't be able to take a picture with my phone, but she has an egg!

 

Might have more, but its really hard to see because it blends in with the fungus so well. It isn't a sand grain or anything, definitely an ant egg.

 

Really excited.