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Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2020 9:40 pm
by timeshell
Now at least 18 eggs. The last fruit fly is now starting to look mangled. Either she's going at it too or it's just starting to decompose.

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 1:16 am
by heyhowie
Any idea how long the eggs take to fully form? Pictures?

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 7:36 am
by timeshell
This is my first experience with ant keeping. Googling suggests it may take about a month.

This is a link to my album. I'll be adding more photos to document this experience.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hg5DoWJhMcUtbBKr7

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 2:02 am
by heyhowie
You've done well to count those eggs, they're tiny!

Any ideas on the formicarium you'll eventually move them into?

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 5:22 pm
by timeshell
I've been designing my own and they can be found on my thingiverse.com profile.

https://www.thingiverse.com/timeshell/designs

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2020 3:58 pm
by timeshell
Looks like there are 2 or 3 larvae now. Still 18 total count. I need to get a macro lens.

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2020 10:05 pm
by megabob
Cool looking queen! I hope she flourishes. I started trying to keep ants last spring. I think my main mistakes were

1. not feeding the queen. My only successful colony is a colony of small black ants. They started doing a lot better when I fed them sugar/sugar water. Although, your genus seems to be more predatory and probably requires more protein? I saw Ausants fed his ants fish food. That might work if you run out of fruit flies :lol:

2. My colony improved a lot after I basically gave up on them and left them alone for a week. I think looking at the queen daily can make her nervous and even could cause her to eat her eggs. But I totally get it, I want to constantly look at my ants!

Take those tips with a grain of salt, I just started as well and haven't had any really successful colonies. :)

Good luck!!

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 9:30 pm
by timeshell
19 count as of today. Some larvae are difficult to distinguish as such, looking very similar to eggs sometimes. Hopefully will see a pupa in the next week or so.

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 4:57 pm
by timeshell
Still 19 today. But it appears 2 or 3 are starting to show colour changes now, looking a little yellowish and darker in the middle! When I opened the drawer today, the Queen moved aside for me to get a better look. Sometimes she ignores me completely, sometimes she takes a slow walk around and sometimes she crawls up and looks like she's trying to look right at me.

She hasn't touched the most recent fruit fly I put in a few days ago. I connected a second tube using my own designed 3D printed joiners, but it looks like she doesn't want to venture into them. Her primary tube is mostly dry with the secondary tube being the primary source of hydration. I may try directly taping the tubes again just to see if she shows interest in hydrating her fruit fly again.

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 7:11 am
by timeshell
So this morning I decided to remove the connector and taped the two tubes to each other. Upon examination, it appears that the Queen has checked it out and decided to use it as her waste area. This obviously was not its intended use. So I think until the nantiks arrive, I'll just keep using the taped tubes method.