I have a wild Tapinoma sessile colony that has been with me for about 4 weeks now, ranging maybe 100-150 workers (complete guess) and i think i have counted 3 or 4 queens recently.
They used to live in just a couple test tubes in a outworld with 18 inch tubing connected to a test tube also. They used to forage around with about 1-5 workers always. (nowadays the same, but more frequently consistent)
I introduced a formicarium 8 days ago, this one here.
It has 2 connections opposite sides. Each with a 3 inch 1/4ID tube.
Since i introduced the formicarium, about 90% of the ants moved into the 18 inch tubing. And the rest with a single queen moved into the 3 inch connection tube at the other side of the formicarium, Held off by a cotton ball.
Now when i first introduced it they were always wandering around in the formicarium which i have a cover for that i peek in the morning, night, and sometimes durring the day. I did hydrate the formicarium the whole day before introducing the ants. And since then I've trying to find just how much water i should be giving it every day, Starting to look like around 70ml.
They are very active in the tubing, Always moving and going back and forth throughout the tubing. They don't appear to be interested in hibernating right now.
But as of a few days ago they introduced some dead ants into the formicarium. Around the same time I've started to see 2-6 ants always hanging out in here when i peek also.
But this morning i realized that 2 of the dead ants appear to be "molding". Inside the formicarium of which i was hoping they would eventually move into... What should i do?
My first conclusion is that the Tapinoma Sessile species likes very tight species. I found them in cardboard/leaves next to my recycling bin.