My first formicarium - Advice please

[Jwerta]

Hey guys and gals! Hope all is well

Well I've just made my first ant formicarium out of a fish tank and some plaster, I haven't got much money so I had to use what was around the house. I have heard plaster nests can be terrible from some people and others say they can be great so thought I would give it a go. Basically I just wanted to show you peeps and see if you think its good/bad and some general advice..

The chamber on the right not connected to anything I will use to hydrate the nest, I was thinking to stick cotton in there so the ants don't drown in there.. Not sure what species I will put in there I have to wait until they start flying in my area... The brown in there is just a bit of clay that was left over hoping they will be fine with that. The dimension are roughly 40cm x 20cm x 20 cm though maybe bigger..


Thanks and if you have any questions feel free to ask as I am sure i haven't put all the information needed

Dam the images are rather large so here is a link to them http://imgur.com/gallery/ocDIM

[Annexis]

The formicarium itself looks great! But it is really big so I wouldnt use it untill youve got like a lot of ants. Other than that i mean it looks pretty solid. Ill warn you though that plaster molds a bit if youre not careful enough. Hope this helped!

[Nathant]

Hey guys and gals! Hope all is well

Well I've just made my first ant formicarium out of a fish tank and some plaster, I haven't got much money so I had to use what was around the house. I have heard plaster nests can be terrible from some people and others say they can be great so thought I would give it a go. Basically I just wanted to show you peeps and see if you think its good/bad and some general advice..

The chamber on the right not connected to anything I will use to hydrate the nest, I was thinking to stick cotton in there so the ants don't drown in there.. Not sure what species I will put in there I have to wait until they start flying in my area... The brown in there is just a bit of clay that was left over hoping they will be fine with that. The dimension are roughly 40cm x 20cm x 20 cm though maybe bigger..


Thanks and if you have any questions feel free to ask as I am sure i haven't put all the information needed

Dam the images are rather large so here is a link to them http://imgur.com/gallery/ocDIM

Wow, looks incredible! I suggest not to move any colonies into their with less than 20 workers.The queen will get stressed of all that space. But yeah, that thing looks like it can go into a measeum, the tunnels and chambers just look so realistic! Great job!

[Firestar987654321]

Here's a tip. If you make another one of this formicarium, I would truly recommend to smear any type of cooking oil onto the mold, like possibly clay or plasticine, before you pour the plaster onto the mold. This will prevent the clay or plasticine from sticking onto the plaster. Hope that will help you