I have a Camponotus barbaricus colony with 4 workers and some brood and my current required maintenance is about 5 minutes every 2-3 days (basically just adding some fruit flies) and replacing the sugar water tube every 2 weeks or so which takes about 5-10 minutes.
Even if i had to feed them 6-8 fruit flies and/or a cricket daily it would hardly require more than ten minutes per day.
Should I Keep Ants?
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- SamuelMamuel
- Posts: 187
- Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:24 pm
Re: Should I Keep Ants?
I want Tetramorium I thinkSerafine wrote:Depends on the species you want.SamuelMamuel wrote:What nest do y'all recommend for a beginner, hybrid or omni? I setup a poll on another post if you wanna vote there
Fire ants literally burst into existence with a speed that forces you to add a new formicarium or outworld every 2-4 weeks as their queens can lay up to 11000 eggs per week.
Camponotus on the other end of the spectrum are very slow-growing and will only reach 100-200 workers after two years (in year 3 they sort of explode into the thousands) which means they can perfectly live in test tubes placed in an outworld for two years before they need more space (additional outworlds or formicariums).
They are also rather dry-loving which makes them perfect candidates for omninests (same goes for harvester ants which need a dry place to store their seeds) while ants that prefer more moist breeding grounds might do better in a hybrid.
Colonies:
--Tetramorium Caespitum
--Camponotus pennsylvanicus
--Formica Sp.
--Tetramorium Caespitum
--Camponotus pennsylvanicus
--Formica Sp.
Re: Should I Keep Ants?
Tetramorium are very adaptable and can accept a broad range of environment conditions. They multiply rather fast (definitely faster than Lasius but not as ridiculous as Solenopsis). The AC channel has a very good tutorial about them.
I'd get an omninest or any of the hybrid nests except the Myrmica one (that one is probably too moist) and an outworld. Note however that the hybrid nest is rather small and once they have moved into it they might need additional nesting space relatively quickly (like in about 3-4 months).
For the first 2-4 months they should be fine in a test tube placed in an outworld (put a straw between the front cotton plug and the glass so they can go out and forage but still have a relatively moist atmosphere within the tube) then when they have 50+ workers you can add the nest.
I'd get an omninest or any of the hybrid nests except the Myrmica one (that one is probably too moist) and an outworld. Note however that the hybrid nest is rather small and once they have moved into it they might need additional nesting space relatively quickly (like in about 3-4 months).
For the first 2-4 months they should be fine in a test tube placed in an outworld (put a straw between the front cotton plug and the glass so they can go out and forage but still have a relatively moist atmosphere within the tube) then when they have 50+ workers you can add the nest.
- SamuelMamuel
- Posts: 187
- Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:24 pm
Re: Should I Keep Ants?
Great! Thank you so muchSerafine wrote:Tetramorium are very adaptable and can accept a broad range of environment conditions. They multiply rather fast (definitely faster than Lasius but not as ridiculous as Solenopsis). The AC channel has a very good tutorial about them.
I'd get an omninest or any of the hybrid nests except the Myrmica one (that one is probably too moist) and an outworld. Note however that the hybrid nest is rather small and once they have moved into it they might need additional nesting space relatively quickly (like in about 3-4 months).
For the first 2-4 months they should be fine in a test tube placed in an outworld (put a straw between the front cotton plug and the glass so they can go out and forage but still have a relatively moist atmosphere within the tube) then when they have 50+ workers you can add the nest.
Colonies:
--Tetramorium Caespitum
--Camponotus pennsylvanicus
--Formica Sp.
--Tetramorium Caespitum
--Camponotus pennsylvanicus
--Formica Sp.
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