New to the Forum and Ant Keeping

[Aussie]

Hello all,

I am brand new to ant keeping and recently acquired my first queen, I captured it as it looked strange because of its larger size. Intrigued I started researching about queen ants, fascinated by AntsCanada's YouTube video on starting an ant colony I decided to give ant keeping a go.

I believe the species is Iridomyrmex purpureus otherwise known as Meat Ants because of the way they devour animal carcasses. If someone could confirm that later (I'm unable to get any decent photos atm)

I did not have any test tubes by found a urine bottle that you get from the doctors instead (strange I know). Also worth mentioning is that i am an adamant fish keeper and breeder and have been for about 3 years. So I had a couple of spare tanks that I didn't need and I converted two into formacariums (spelling?). The first, a tiny 20L plastic tank I used to keep the nest (aka urine bottle with some rain water and cotton balls stuffed inside) safe and escape proof.

The tank and nest I kept in the cabinet of a larger tank so it was very dark, after 2 weeks she had layed eggs, although as I am very impatient stressed her out when I checked on her and she ate those eggs. Frustrated I decided to leave her for exactly 1 month. I checked on her again and was shocked when I found 9 workers inside with her, at the time I thought they were workers from a wild colony that had gotten in and eaten her but when (again impatience struck) I removed the nest for a close look saw she was still alive and that they were indeed her workers.

After this i kept her outside of the tank for a week covered by an old towel for privacy while I constructed a larger diy nest. I made it out of three water bottles. Satisfied with the new nest I added lots of water and cotton balls into them and it turned out great. I then attached there old nest onto one of the bottles and moved this into a 2.5ft glass tank with some of my local areas, Terranora, soil (Terranora in Aboriginal means red soil, the soil is red because of volcanic eruption many years ago. Because of this the plants, trees and ants thrive as it is packed with nutrients and other goodies)

I added the soil as all of the other ants nest in it and therefore I believe it mimics there natural habitat. Although the ants unfortunately dont like my diy nest and special soil for them as they are still in there slightly moldy urine bottle. But I think they will expand when they are comfortable.

Sorry if this made no sense lol, I wrote in a rush. Also I would post a photo of the setup but it says file to large...

Cannot get any good photos of the colony yet and I do not want to disturb them again.

I will most likely have many questions in my journey!

Cheers Aussie

[Aussie]

Woops!

I believe I have posted this in the wrong section mods?