37 replies to this topic

[Saftron]

So about 2 months ago I caught a Tetramorium queen and to this day she has about 13 workers and a pile of larvae.

 

The start: She started off in a test tube for 2 days until I moved her into a Tarheel Ants Atom A Chamber and from there she started her colony. It took about 2 weeks for her eggs to become larvae, and about 2 weeks for the larvae to pupate (sp?) and about 2 more weeks for the pupae to become nanitics. A month and a week later from when I first caught her, her first workers arrived and for their first meal I decided to give them honey and thoughtout the day I always saw atleast 1 nanitic drinking the honey. 2 days after their sugar fix I decided to give them the head of a large mealworm which they pretty much ignored except 1 ant. 

 

The Move: About 2 days ago I decided to move them into an Small Tarheel Ants Inception chamber made specifically for Tetramorium. Within 7 hours they all moved into the chamber and later that night I pushed the head of a mealworm into the entrance and they took it in and feasted. The next day the entrance from the chamber to the outworld was blocked with sand so I was kinda worried about the mealworm head molding. Today, luckily they moved the head to the chamber that receives no hydration so I'm pretty happy.

 

So yeah that's how my colony is doing so far, let me know if I should continue and feel free to leave suggestions. Peace out. 

[Saftron]

I haven't really posted on this because no one has commented plus nothing new interesting happened. Anyways, I introduced my colony to a heating pad and they are responding fairly well. So far 6 new workers eclosed, expecting 10-12 more in 1-2 weeks. Queen has started producing way more with the heating pad, lots of eggs, larvae and pupae. That's pretty much it. 

 

Heating Pad I use with towel over it so acrylic doesn't crack: http://www.petco.com...der-tank-heater

[AnthonyP163]

I put one of mine in hibernation, and the other one isn't showing signs of wanting to hibernate. They both have 20-30 workers.
Also, I use the same heating mat.

[Saftron]

Update:

 

So my Tetramorium colony is about 5 months old now and they have about 45-50 workers. They haven't been growing too fast but right now they are about to grow a ton! They have about 20 larvae that will become pupae very soon, yay! The queen has also laid 2 batches of eggs is less than 2 weeks. The heating mat has been helping based off of growth and they don't seem like they want to hibernate so I won't hibernate them. I hope to see regular sized workers but I'm fine with them as they are even though they are very tiny. I haven't posted a picture of them at all so I guess I'll add one now!

 

 

(Tetramorium nanitics working on a dead camponotus vicinus worker, you can really see the size difference between the 2 species. They have pulled off most of the gaster and antennae and have been "digging" in it's head.)

Edited by Antkeeperxxx, November 29 2016 - 9:10 PM.

[Saftron]

So as my 1st colony this has be an awesome so far and I hope it keep's on going. To me it's really amazing how a lone queen with nothing got this far, (I know it's not that far but for me it feels like she's gone pretty far.) I can't believe I am the one who actually raised them and that they are doing well and fine. This is the 1st animal/pet I have actually been responsible with and have kept cleaning, feeding, watering so I am really proud of myself. Usually I like the pet for a month and than get bored and stop taking care but not with ants haha So far this experience has been fascinating and I want to keep going so I really recommend keeping ants because it's a fun hell of a ride and a very rewarding one!

 

 

This video shows the size of my colony and probably is better than my summary of them the post above: 

Edited by Antkeeperxxx, November 29 2016 - 9:12 PM.

[noebl1]

FWIW, I have three first season Tetramorium Sp E colonies here too. I put them into "hibernation" a few weeks back (though my basement temp at the time was only ~61F.)  I noticed before I moved them downstairs, when I fed them, the excitement for food had dropped where as they used to come pouring out, to maybe 1 or 2 would bother if at all.  Last week I got a wine chiller installed and temp has been down to 49F.  I noticed they are still foraging, still responsive if I am checking the status of the nest, but a lot less active.  Oct/Nov is the pretty normal hibernation time here in the North East for most insects, so timing seemed right.  Wondering if being in California, your's just may be going into hibernation a bit later due to the warmer climate?

[Saftron]

Update on my Tetramorium, this video is probably better than a long paragraph so here!

 

 

Edited by Antkeeperxxx, December 1 2016 - 8:54 PM.

[Mdrogun]

Update on my Tetramorium, this video is probably better than a long paragraph so here!

 

 

please hold your phone horizontally next time. Also, are you sure this is sp. e? sp. e workers are entirely black but I didn't see a single worker in your colony that was.

Edited by Mdrogun, December 2 2016 - 10:01 PM.

[T.C.]

I bet you will have a worker explosion here soon.

[Saftron]

Mdrogun most of the brood are finally starting to eclose so there is a majority of Callows and also most of the black workers were in the other chambers on the side, it's hard to see and as you can tell I am using a phone to record and it cannot fit inside the Inception chamber. Tetramorium Caespitum are the only Tetramorium species in the Bay Area based off of AntWeb so it is most likely Tetramorium Caespitum or some unusually large temnothorax which is unlikely. Queen is about 7-8mm


You can check out my video above this one and that one is a week before this video and gives a better view of the workers while this one is mainly Focused on the brood.

Edited by Antkeeperxxx, December 3 2016 - 8:57 AM.

[Saftron]

Not an update but it seem's my Tetramorium like King's Hawaiian Bread. 

 

[Mdrogun]

Mdrogun most of the brood are finally starting to eclose so there is a majority of Callows and also most of the black workers were in the other chambers on the side, it's hard to see and as you can tell I am using a phone to record and it cannot fit inside the Inception chamber. Tetramorium Caespitum are the only Tetramorium species in the Bay Area based off of AntWeb so it is most likely Tetramorium Caespitum or some unusually large temnothorax which is unlikely. Queen is about 7-8mm


You can check out my video above this one and that one is a week before this video and gives a better view of the workers while this one is mainly Focused on the brood.

While antweb.org is a good reference it is not always 100% accurate. Someone might need to correct me but I believe that what was originally thought of as Tetramorium caespitum in the US has been renamed to Tetramroium sp. e.

[Batspiderfish]

Tetramorium sp. E represents many Tetramorium (including T. caespitum, although that name is also commonly used as a placeholder) that can only really be separated genetically. I've heard varying accounts of how many different Tetramorium these are, but I'm pretty sure there are at least four of them that are unnamed.

Edited by Batspiderfish, December 7 2016 - 7:42 AM.

[Saftron]

Here is a quick video on my Tetramorium. They are pretty fast! This time I recorded sideways and zoomed in the furthest I could.

 

[Saftron]

Here are more pics of them:

 

Edited by Saftron, December 14 2016 - 2:25 PM.

[sgheaton]

You've got quite a bit of movement still compared to mine. Once I moved them into the basement, they slowed down a bit. Basically are all together in one pile. 

 

You giving yours coffee? I suppose I should "refeed" mine and do a check in on them this weekend. Thanks for the reminder, now lets see if it sticks!

[Goldsystem]

Mine won't stop they won't let me hibernate themi

[Diesel]

I hear that goldy. My Camponotus did the same thing.

[Saftron]

This colony is doing very well. I would say 65-80 workers. About 35-40 pupae, 30-40 eggs and a ton of larvae. The new workers eclosing are the same length as the nanitics but appear to have slightly larger heads and slightly larger gasters, not major enough to be majors.

 

Edited by Saftron, December 18 2016 - 9:58 AM.

[Leo]

cool