Hey folks, so reminder, I am an Illinois resident who has a great person who is helping me collect some ants I can keep that are local caught-by local I mean around 50 mile radius from my house. Unusual stuff I would not have found on my own.
Anyway, their care seems pretty basic-these ants only drawback I can find is that they smell like"rotten coconuts" somehow. Never smelled that so hoping it's just like... pina colada (fingers crossed!!)
So they're like 2mm in size with the queens like 3mm. My questions for housing are thus...
1: Could I keep a 20k colony with 300 queens in a setup of appropriate soil in a 54 quart plastic tub? This would be basically the size of a 30 gallon tank. Would this be enough space if I precut some holes for future expansion? My thought was to put some holes ready for tubes into the setup so I could expand at a later date. New tubs, tubes running across my desk area, etc.
2: Has anyone done or have experience doing a setup like this where you have a smaller tub inside, kind of buried? Like an 'inner outworld?" This would push soil up against the sides of the main tub so I might have a better chance of seeing them in their tunnels, and have the outworld 'inside' with maybe a few potted plants or planted plants for them to explore/ collect moisture from. This would also allow for a "false bottom" to help regulate humidity in the tunnels.
Any help is and would be amazing. Online info is useful but a bit sparse. Thanks!