Congo ant species for paludarium

[MidwestBugMan]

Hey all,

I've completed plans and will soon be building a 72x22x36" Congo swamp biotope paludarium. It will feature only fish, plants, and amphibian species from the Congo. Its LEDs will be equipped with natural lighting simulations (sunrise/sunset, randomized cloudcover, thunderstorms, etc) and I've already built an artificial rain system for the tank. Water level will vary seasonally between 8-12". The back of the tank will look like the edge of a small bluff, with rocks, mosses, dirt, and water trickling over much of it. There will be some small pockets of land, and many driftwood branches and live plants.

I'm considering adding an ant species to the tank, but I have the following concerns/questions I was hoping y'all could help me with:

1) Are there any ant species native to the Congo that may be commonly available for purchasing queens?

2) Alternatively, of the Congo genera that are also found in the U.S.A. (Camponotus, Crematogaster, Tetramorium, Odontomachus, perhaps others), which genus would be best to keep in my paludarium as a substitute for Congo species of the same genus? I'm looking for a species whose colony size remains reasonably small, since ants will be a part - but not the main focus - of the display. I will probably use the display as the outworld and have it connected to a separate formicarium.

I'm leaning towards Odontomachus, cause they are awesome ants that I've had the pleasure of observing in the wild in Florida, and their colony sizes tend to stay smaller, but I've heard they can be tricky to keep. I'm also concerned about how realistic it would be to acquire a new queen, giving my geographical location. Thoughts?

3) Other considerations:
- A) I would like for occasional clumsy ants to form a secondary food source for my fishes.
- B) Since I'll occasionally use flightless fruit flies and small crickets to stimulate the natural feeding behavior of my African butterflyfish (which jump out of the water to catch inverts on vegetation) and to feed my Hyperolius reed frogs, will I have to be concerned about live crickets wreaking havoc on my ants?
- C) How would I go about striking a balance such that my reed frogs won't eat the ants out of existence but the ants also won't harm the reed frogs if their colony grows too large? Trial and error?

4) Part of the side walls will be acrylic, and part will be glass. The top 24" of the entire front panel will open upwards. My main hesitation with adding ants to this enclosure is containment, especially since it's a display and I want to avoid any unsightly ant barriers. Is there any way to keep ants off the glass altogether? Or would I be better off building some sort of island such that the tubing connecting to the formicariun comes up from inside the island to keep them contained via water? How wide (mininally) does the water around the island have to be keep them contained?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and insight,
MidwestBugMan

[Hawkeye]

Cool plan, very similar to my own, although I am going for Asian species in the water. I'd be very interested in comparing notes! I've made a thread about my designs if you're interested.

Are there any ant species native to the Congo that may be commonly available for purchasing queens?

I am not sure about how easy species from the Congo will be to acquire in the States, as you have different legislation. https://antwiki.org/wiki/Congo should help you out. In picking a species there are certain things like temperature, humidity (gradient) of the soil and the outworld itself and whether or not your species requires lower temperatures for hibernation for instance to take into account.

2) Alternatively, of the Congo genera that are also found in the U.S.A. (Camponotus, Crematogaster, Tetramorium, Odontomachus, perhaps others), which genus would be best to keep in my paludarium as a substitute for Congo species of the same genus?

I like the idea of having a formicarium attached to your massive outworld, however, any ant colony will have a mind of its own. So if they deem the outworld to be a better location to settle down, they will vacate the formicarium and migrate. There's pretty much nothing you can do to prevent this. Well unless you chose species with particular needs/habits. The change in seasonal water levels might actually cause a seasonal migration, giving you something to look at, but it might leave you with an empty formicarium half of the year.

The Camponotus nicobarensis, isn't native to the Congo region, but is roughly from the same lattitude. They actually nest inside a plant in a specialised symbiosis, so their 'formicarium' might actually be a very nice addition inside your paludarium, or (as it is basically a plant inside an aquarium) a nice addition next to your paludarium. The species doesn't hibernate, which means they're more visible throughout the year and have a better rate of growth compared to other Carpenter species, not entirely sure how big the colony will get with predators like your frogs and fish around, but once the colony has grown to a descent size, they'll likely be able to deal with the losses.


Another suitable Carpenter species might be Camponotus truncatus These colonies nest in (fallen/rotting) branches and have ants with specialised heads, which will completely shut off their nest entrances and exits. In Dutch they're called doorman ants, but I'm not sure if that translates well. If you're able to connect a formicarium to your paludarium through a log of wood, the ants will actually be able to completely shut off access. The colony itself will only grow to about 100- 500 so quite small. Which also means they will be more susceptible to attacks from your predators when they're out foraging, so having an option to feed the colony outside the paludarium might be a good option, but that's something you would have to find out in reality.

I'm leaning towards Odontomachus, cause they are awesome ants that I've had the pleasure of observing in the wild in Florida, and their colony sizes tend to stay smaller, but I've heard they can be tricky to keep. I'm also concerned about how realistic it would be to acquire a new queen, giving my geographical location. Thoughts?

There aren't any kind of trapjaw ants in the Congo as far as I am aware, but they would definitely be easy to contain as they can't climb slippery surfaces. I am not sure how they would interact with your frogs, but they basically will be actively hunting the same insects your frogs are after, so in other words, they will be competing for food... And might be hunted by the frogs themselves.

3) Other considerations:
- A) clumsy ants
- B) will I have to be concerned about live crickets wreaking havoc on my ants?
- C) How would I go about striking a balance?

A) Pretty much all species will have some clumsy ants, but you will likely want to choose a species that is accustomed to being around water?
B)No need to worry about your ants in this case, in fact (depending on the species you chose) they might actually try to overpower these life insects and claim them for the colony.
C) As for the balancing act, you want a colony of sufficient size to sustain losses to your frogs and/or fish. Seeing as your frogs are bigger, alive and quick on their feet, I don't think the ants will pose any danger to them whatsoever.

4) My main hesitation with adding ants to this enclosure is containment

In my design, (which is open as well) I have gone with the 'island' option, surrounding a terrarium with a flowing 'river' inside the paludarium. I think the minimum distance I used is about 12 cm, based on nothing but my own gut feeling though. Giving the ants access to the island via tubing or should work just fine if you can incorporate it in your design. A seethrough barrier of fluon might be an option? I am going to try it without one at first.

In any case I am very eager to follow your progress, maybe you'll have some insights I never even thought off. Besides that, I recommend to take a look at our Camponotus Crew thread, or better yet join us. Pretty sure it is the most active thread on the forum and the members will be more than happy to give you feedback.

[MidwestBugMan]

Cool plan, very similar to my own, although I am going for Asian species in the water. I'd be very interested in comparing notes! I've made a thread about my designs if you're interested.

Awesome! I'd love to see the thread about your project. What species of fishes do you intend to keep?

I like the idea of having a formicarium attached to your massive outworld, however, any ant colony will have a mind of its own. So if they deem the outworld to be a better location to settle down, they will vacate the formicarium and migrate. There's pretty much nothing you can do to prevent this.

Depending upon the species, I would be okay with this, provided they can survive nesting near the frogs. The seasonal fluctation/migration could be interesting to watch.

The Camponotus nicobarensis, isn't native to the Congo region, but is roughly from the same lattitude. They actually nest inside a plant in a specialised symbiosis, so their 'formicarium' might actually be a very nice addition inside your paludarium, or (as it is basically a plant inside an aquarium) a nice addition next to your paludarium.

That's an interesting species, and definitely something to keep in mind. I really like carpenter ants, but I'm concerned about containment. The back panel of the tank will be HDPE plastic, which carpenters may be able to chew through.

Another suitable Carpenter species might be Camponotus truncatus These colonies nest in (fallen/rotting) branches and have ants with specialised heads, which will completely shut off their nest entrances and exits.

Another awesome species and a great suggestion, though this species is more temperate in origin. I am putting this on my list of species to keep in the future...

There aren't any kind of trapjaw ants in the Congo as far as I am aware, but they would definitely be easy to contain as they can't climb slippery surfaces. I am not sure how they would interact with your frogs, but they basically will be actively hunting the same insects your frogs are after, so in other words, they will be competing for food... And might be hunted by the frogs themselves.

Odontomachus troglodytus is from the Congo, though I would probably use O. brunneus in its stead, since I can collect that species without too much hassle. My hesitation with trapjaws is that the colony may not be robust enough to compete for food with the frogs and withstand being eaten by frogs and fishes. My plan is to stock the frogs last (my wife is terrified of frogs, and since the paludarium is going in our bedroom, it'll take me the longest to get approval from the Mrs.), so the ants may have some time to become established and grow in numbers before the frogs are present.

4) My main hesitation with adding ants to this enclosure is containment

In my design, (which is open as well) I have gone with the 'island' option, surrounding a terrarium with a flowing 'river' inside the paludarium. I think the minimum distance I used is about 12 cm, based on nothing but my own gut feeling though. Giving the ants access to the island via tubing or should work just fine if you can incorporate it in your design. A seethrough barrier of fluon might be an option? I am going to try it without one at first.

If I do go with the island option, it will probably be somewhat small. This paludarium project is first and foremost designed for fishes, so I don't want to reduce the amount of water too drastically. What I might do is build an island that has two elevations such that the island doubles in size when the water level drops seasonally. The island idea does present challenges; namely, I will have to keep the entire buffer zone around the island free of emergent plants or overhanging vegetation from terrestrial plants. This way the ants can't escape into the rest of the enclosure so easily. Secondly, my system is designed to replicate a slow-moving swamp, so I am intentionally avoiding fast currents due to the fishes I'll be keeping. This could make the water buffer somewhat less effective in containing ants.

What I am currently leaning towards is building a 2" wide rim into the canopy/hood/lid of the enclosure and using fluon or vaseline along the underside of this rim. Probably would not be very effective against escape artists, but it could work for trapjaws.

In any case I am very eager to follow your progress, maybe you'll have some insights I never even thought off. Besides that, I recommend to take a look at our Camponotus Crew thread, or better yet join us. Pretty sure it is the most active thread on the forum and the members will be more than happy to give you feedback.

I'll have to take a look! I definitely appreciate Camponotus. Here in Missouri we have a pretty good diversity of carpenters ants.

I appreciate your interest in this project, and I'll be sure to keep you updated as it moves along. I am in the process of creating a website that will detail my progress and include natural history articles on the inhabitants. I plan to post progress of the project there in a blog-style setting. I'll post the link below once I've made some progress on the site.

Unfortunately, financial constraints have halted this project for a few weeks, and once I can order the last components, they may take close to a month to arrive. But this just gives more time to plan...

All the best,
MidwestBugMan

[Hawkeye]

Hey there.

I will have a filterpump pushing 2000 l/h and another at 400 l/h (in the same system.) So my design hasn't got a wild current in mind. It's mostly the water itself and the width they would have to cross that should keep the ants in. Mind you, I wouldn't have much of a surface to put any barrier on anyway.

I plan to have Rasbora, Danio, corydora, mudcrawlers, a couple of asian algae eaters, neocaridina shrimp, possibly a docile midget lobster, muscles and snails. I will attempt to raise water fleas in the vivarium as a natural food source. I might add some golden Puntius semifasciolatus to the mix as well.

Regardless of which species you'll chose, you will have to let the ants settle in and it might take some time before they reach big enough numbers to withstand losses due to predation, drowning and deaths of natural causes.
I would introduce the ants when the water is at the highest level and thus the island at its smallest.

[Mandelstam]

I'm not too knowledgeable about the reed frogs regarding being poisonous but many frogs either collect or synthesize their toxins from alkaloids found in ants. Poison dart frogs for instance lose their toxicity in captivity when fed other insects but will start produce toxins again if their diet permits. Just something to be aware of and look into maybe.