The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Hello everyone. First post here, and decided to make it a journal post.

I bought this colony from Drew over on Formiculture back in January (2016), and it started off with 10 workers and a queen. I was keeping them in the garage, but it wasn't a very good place for them (even with a heater). The temperature changed too much, and got too hot and too cold. Two workers died over a period of a few months and the colony was pretty stagnate. So I was left with 8 workers, barely any fungus and nearly no brood. Attaching a heater to my ant area helped a lot. Over a period of only a month after attaching a heater, it looked like this (back in June, but this picture is taken in July)



A vast improvement over a tiny ball of fungus and barely any activity. However, once Summer hit...the garage got too hot in the day and too cold at night. Again, the colony stagnated and the fungus slowly was dying off. It got pretty unhealthy.

So, I moved them into the closet. Always dark, and always 75-80 (very rarely going above 80, very rarely below 75). So, the temperature was far more consistent, and it seems the optimal texture for Acromyrmex versicolor.

And finally, here is what the colony looks like now. Pictures taken yesterday. In just a couple months of being in the closet, there has been massive growth! The colony has grown insanely fast, and so has the fungus. I looked yesterday, and couldn't believe how many ants there were.

Oh, and as a heads up. Usually there are a couple foraging areas on top, but I took them off for pictures. The dark soil is peat moss, which the ants really love to dig in (and make weird dome shaped mounds out of). Also, the fungus is super healthy. In some pictures it might look weird, but that is because of the flash and lighting. If I took them in the day it would work better, but the android phone I use for pictures needs the flash at night. Still should be awesome pictures!

Love it! Keep us updated on progress!

I don't have any recent pictures, but figured I'd update. I'll keep it short.

The fungus all got moved to an 8 chamber setup and instead of a bunch of formicariums connected up its just one bigger sized one. A lot easier to manage. The fungus isn't really growing much though, it grows and dies and grows and dies...they are pretty tough to raise.

However next year I'm moving, and if its out of state I won't be (obviously) taking them with me. Nor would I be able to take any of my ants. But if my family moves locally I'll keep them, but it isn't looking to be that way.

And that is about it. Honestly not much as changed. Though their brood pile has shrunk by a LOT...not sure if the queen is even still alive. There is some larvae and stuff, but very little and its not nearly as much brood as there was some months ago. So I dunno.

Well I dunno what changed. When I updated the other day I didn't actually look at them. Last time I actually DID look was a month or so ago. I kinda gave up on them and didn't pay any attention. So much fungus died and so little brood figured it was the end.

Look yesterday, and they are literally almost out of room. Fungus in every chamber and now they need to be expanded. I dunno what changed or happened, but a lot of brood too.

No idea why they do good and then bad, but now they are doing too good xD I wasn't expecting them to have a huge growth spurt of fungus and egg laying. Guess that means the queen is alive lol.

Guess now gotta give them a bigger home...they have used up almost all of theirs...

Awesome what are you feeding them

I wish there were fungus growers here in south Africa

I was feeding them quinoa seeds, dried rose petals and a couple other types of seeds. I tried oatmeal bits and they didn't like that surprisingly.

However, I no longer have the colony. I'm moving out of state next year so I sold them to someone who lives near me. I can't take ants across state lines and I wouldn't want to risk doing that. Especially with Acromyrmex, that be such a huge thing to get busted for by the law.