15 replies to this topic

[Goldsystem]

I have a choice of keeping one of 3 queens, a Tetramorium caespitum queen, a camponotus vicinus queen, and finally a P. Imparis queen.

I can't decide so I was wondering what queen you guys would choose and why.

Edited by Goldsystem, June 28 2016 - 7:31 PM.

[drtrmiller]

Your parents said you could only keep one? Get new parents and keep them all.

Joking aside, you should explain to your parents that ants are very difficult to keep and to help get past the founding stage, and so if you only have one colony in that delicate stage, you are setting yourself up to fail. You should explain to them that only the easiest ants will be able to survive your care, and so the rest will die naturally anyways, as a result of, much like some exotic baby plant, how fragile they are.

Edited by drtrmiller, June 28 2016 - 3:58 PM.

[ctantkeeper]

If you follow Terry's advice and your parents still will only let you keep one colony, I would highly suggest Tetramorium caespitum, which is an excellent beginner species (most Camponotus species having a very long founding period and often die from the formic acid they produce when threatened in instances in which they are raised in either test tube setups or other acrylic setups. On the other hand, Prenolepis imparis colonies often stay fairly small and often die in captivity due to their high difficulty level. They are often seen as a "challenge species" by most ant keepers.). If you do end up raising Tetramorium Caespitum and find several de-alate queens out in the field, i suggest that you raise them in a setup together (in groups of 2-4). They will co-habitate during the founding period, increasing the amount of workers and brood early on. However, the workers will gradually begin to select all but one of the queens to be killed soon after or immediately after the founding period ends. If the queens behave aggressively when first introduced to each over, break up the conflict as soon as possible and then place their setup (along with your queens) into a small refrigerator for about 5-7 minutes in order to slow their metabolic functions and dull their senses (this will allow the colony ID pheromone coating the individual queens to gradually mix and homogenize through long periods of contact). This should decrease aggression (if not, try again). When founding, they require no food (a small droplet of honey, sugar water or honey water can be fed to them in order to give them an added carbohydrate boost, however this is unnecessary.). Once workers appear, they will require protein-rich food in the form of freshly killed insects (meal worms cut into sections, termites, fruit flies, Dubia roaches cut in half, pre-killed wax worms, etc.) and some form of carbohydrate-rich food source (sugar water, honey, honey water, sunburst ant nectar, etc.). Make sure that their diet is well balanced and that they have a constant source of water (A test tube setup will work fine as their initial setup.). Workers will appear within approx. 3 weeks and individual queens will create an initial batch of 6-10 nanitics (first-gen workers).

Edited by ctantkeeper, June 29 2016 - 5:00 PM.

[LC3]

Anyways ants for the first few months or so from nanitics and so on to the second generation of brood, you won't need a lot of space or equipment. A few or most may not make if past the founding stage, after that you might encounter some problems with the colony. Basically the first stages of a colony may be the most difficult but also the least resource intensive. After that you may decide for yourself and decide which colony to keep. 4 queens, 4 tubes, takes up a space less than a shoe box.

 

Like what CT said, Tetramorium have a high success rate, and are quite common. Camponotus just need their space but it seems the majority of problems come after the colony is founded and the first nanitics eclose. As for Prenelopsis I don't have a lot of experience with them nor do I know much information and other peoples' observations about them.

[Goldsystem]

Your parents said you could only keep one? Get new parents and keep them all.

Joking aside, you should explain to your parents that ants are very difficult to keep and to help get past the founding stage, and so if you only have one colony in that delicate stage, you are setting yourself up to fail. You should explain to them that only the easiest ants will be able to survive your care, and so the rest will die naturally anyways, as a result of, much like some exotic baby plant, how fragile they are.

Lol, but any ways taking into account what you said and what others have yet to say maybe they will change their minds, but I doubt it.

[LC3]

What are the main reasons your parents are so against you keeping them?

If there must be an argument you should emphasis on their low success rate during queen founding stage and their lack of maintenance during this stage as well. Until the colonies grow bigger or after receiving nanitics they don't require much space and pretty low maintenance.

[Goldsystem]

What are the main reasons your parents are so against you keeping them?
If there must be an argument you should emphasis on their low success rate during queen founding stage and their lack of maintenance during this stage as well. Until the colonies grow bigger or after receiving nanitics they don't require much space and pretty low maintenance.

Well originally ant keeping was a extra credit thing for my biology class, but kinda turned into a obsession. I was out every day looking for Queen or researching about native ants. I got over the obsession part of it but during that time had collected a p.imparis Queen a camponotus Queen and 10 pavement ant queens. And as soon as the biology project ended my parents wanted the ants gone, because I already have a snake and my last big pet project with RCS (red cherry shrimp) whent very poorly, I managed to convince them to let me keep one of the queens and to let the others first Bach of eggs fully develop so that when I release them they will have a fighting chance. But I still can't decide on what ant to keep because these are my 3 favorite local species and they ether have large larvae or nanitics (sorry if I misspelled). But ya that's the story.

[Goldsystem]

I have a journal set up for them here:
http://www.formicult...016/#entry36263

[Goldsystem]

I think I want to keep the tetra queens. When the time comes how should I release the other two queens?

[EstuaryAnts]

I know this may not be you but...I say hide the extras in your closet and slowly convince your parents to let you have more one then take the extras out of your closet then BOOM you can keep all of them.

Edited by EstuaryAnts, June 29 2016 - 6:43 PM.

[MrmrGatlin]

Oh man, RCS. Now you're talking my language! What was your setup? Was it planted or, even better, Walstad inspired?

[Goldsystem]

I know this may not be you but...I say hide the extras in your closet and slowly convince your parents to let you have more one then take the extras out of your closet then BOOM you can keep all of them.

That could be very risky because if they found them they could get mad and get rid of all of them.

[Goldsystem]

Oh man, RCS. Now you're talking my language! What was your setup? Was it planted or, even better, Walstad inspired?

It was planted and it was going very well too, but then for some reason all the shrimp and poor little baby shrimp died After that I kinda gave up because I had put a lot of money into them, and I'm glad I did because ant keeping ( so far ) has been way more fun

Edited by Goldsystem, June 29 2016 - 8:24 PM.

[MrmrGatlin]

Hmm usually the downfall of cherries when it's a sudden die off like that is a water change larger than 10% and having the temp spike a couple degrees UP. They are better at handling cold water being added, not so much warm water. They are also especially sensitive when you have them in a smaller volume of water. Under 5 gallons they start to get challenging.

[MrmrGatlin]

And I agree that keeping ants are fun but I feel like keeping RCS(or any aquaria) can also be a fun, easy and rewarding hobby. I wrote a whole article on low tech planted tanks a few years ago, I'll see if I can dig it out if you want it?

[Goldsystem]

I don't think I would get back into the hobby but I would like to read the article