139 replies to this topic

[Alabama Anter]

OMG I love the workers! The fungus looks amazing too! Good luck!🍀

Edited by Alabama Anter, January 9 2017 - 6:24 PM.

[AntsBrazil]

Update 01-11-17

 

All the queens have workers, just the one that I donated the fungus that don't. 

In the first picture I saw 4-5 workers(maybe one under those 2) some dark brown pupae, including a big one, also some dark brown and lots of white ones. 

 

 

 

 

Here's the queen that I donated the fungus:

[T.C.]

I still can't tell you how jealous you are making me. Anyways, keep up the good work and i can't wait to see your progress with this colony.

[AntsBrazil]

Update 01-12-17

 

Thanks for the answers!

That first big one that I think is a harvester "eclosed". I decided to place some plants, but I don't know their scientific names so won't even try to list them.

All the colonies seem to be doing well, those two from the photos seem to be the ones doing the best(with more workers). I think we will reach 10 workers this week.

I'll check them tomorrow to see if they found the plants. 

OBS: The queen from the last photo had a piece of fungus on her back(her own fungus), that got stuck there when she fell trying to bite me, but I already removed.

 

 

Edited by JPSMedeiros, January 12 2017 - 7:40 AM.

[Connectimyrmex]

The workers are so tiny!

[Vendayn]

You may try smaller pieces, or to crumble up dried plants. I'm not sure if a small colony would cut up large pieces of food right away, before they get the "soldiers" made for cutting leaves. Or take larger pieces and tear them up to tiny pieces that they can easily carry.

 

I have Acromyrmex versicolor (quite different being a desert species, and mine don't do much cutting even as a larger colony with large soldiers). But, I crush up dried rose petals and give them quinoa + mustard seeds and they love those a lot. They like grass too, which is pretty much only thing I've actually seen them cut. Though their diet is probably a bit different, since in the desert the most readily available food source would likely be seeds and dried plants. 

 

I just don't think a tiny colony, with really small workers would have an easy time cutting those large pieces of food up. Could be wrong though, since my only experience is with a single Acromyrmex colony.

[Connectimyrmex]

Also, try not to use every day potted plants. Try grass, oak leaves, or rose petals (as vendayn said).

 

Be careful with poisonous or semi-poisonous plants like Potato, Poinsettia, and Oleander.

[antgenius123]

Wow good job. Getting these fungus growers going isn't the easiest task.

Edited by antgenius123, January 12 2017 - 10:02 PM.

[AntsBrazil]

They will start cutting these plants for sure, maybe will take a bit longer but that bigger one is already a harvester and is made for cutting things, also that flowers are very soft. About the poisonous plants, I'm giving them some plants that I see wild colonies harvesting and some that friends with colonies said me to give to them. Thanks for the tips, I'll try cutting some of the plants for them if they don't accept this first ones. 

[AntsBrazil]

Not really an update but 2 of the 3 colonies did this with the plants:

 

They placed the pieces all around but not in the fungus, maybe just training?   I removed all the pieces(at least most of them) and placed new ones(this time small pieces). I'll remove all the plants in 1 or 2 days so they don't go bad. 

[AntsBrazil]

Update 01-16-17

 

We lost a queen. The queen that I donated the fungus died, her fungus was growing but was kinda dark, now she is dead and her fungus is being attacked by other fungus.

We also lost a worker from one of the colonies, the worker climbed in the plastic cup and drowned in the cotton soaked in water, I removed the plastic cup from all the colonies.

In the first photo I counted 18 workers pretty impressive I think, they are starting to walk around out of the fungus, I'll give them some plants again when they are going a bit further out of the fungus. 

In the second photo you can see another colony, and take a look at the queen, she is clean now! The workers probably cleaned her(and the other queens too) you can go to the older photos and see the white things on the back of the queens, now they look much better! 

 

 

[Alexant]

Could we get a picture or two that shows their size? (Queens and workers)

[AntsBrazil]

Could we get a picture or two that shows their size? (Queens and workers)

Like in cm? I'll try to do that in the next update, but in the first post of this there's a measurement of the queen(not a very good one).

Edited by JPSMedeiros, January 16 2017 - 1:05 PM.

[Connectimyrmex]

I'm so jealous. The workers are so friggin adorable!

Have they started harvesting plant material yet? 

[AntsBrazil]

Not yet, I'll give them some tomorrow. 

[AntsBrazil]

Update 01-18-17

 

They accepted the plants!!

Finally the ants accepted one of the plants that I gave them, I was thinking that they would not accept because they just turned the plant into pieces and left it all around(again), but I decided to leave the plants there for some more time and they decided to use it on the fungus. 

I found the name of the plant that they accepted online: Hibiscus Snow Green(maybe Hibiscus rosa-sinensis).

OBS: I couldn't get their size, I the container is too small to fit something to measure the ants.

 

Edited by JPSMedeiros, January 18 2017 - 6:31 AM.

[T.C.]

Very nice JPS. Looks like you know what your doing. Congratulations

[antgenius123]

Wow, have you measured your queen?

[AntsBrazil]

Wow, have you measured your queen?

I couldn't fit the ruler inside the container, and I don't want to stress the queen too much. 

[Leo]

size difference 101