Atta - Aquarium setup

Let everyone see the story of your colony(ies) over time. Pictures, developments, success and failures, what works / what doesn't, and your plans for expansion as time goes by!
Post Reply
RichardP
Worker
Posts: 437
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 10:30 am

Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Fri Jan 22, 2016 5:50 pm

Hi, I thought I'd start a journal of my Atta sp. setup and development.

I had a lot of help from Andrew and Prof. Adam Hart. Both gave me ideas that I adapted. My start point was an aquarium setup.

I went for the Aquaone 135 litre setup but if I did it again, I'd go a size up. It measures 80cm*40cm*40cm.

I found something called Rainbow stone which looks great as support for the nesting chambers.

Image

RichardP
Worker
Posts: 437
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 10:30 am

Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Fri Jan 22, 2016 6:03 pm

Glass seemed the obvious choice as a platform.

Andrew advised me about an artificial vine product that I'd seen on one of his setups. So that was my first "walkway". I had no intention at this point of introducing fish so the water level is very low compared to how it developed.

Image

Image

RichardP
Worker
Posts: 437
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 10:30 am

Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Fri Jan 22, 2016 6:12 pm

I didn't like the artificial look of the vine so I utilised some bamboo from my garden as a walkway no.2. I also started to develop a way of getting the ants back to safety when they fell in the water and that is the bamboo that you can see in the back ground sticking up out of the water.

Image

Image

RichardP
Worker
Posts: 437
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 10:30 am

Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Fri Jan 22, 2016 6:17 pm

So, another rainbow stone and a week later it looks like this. Still no thought of fish. The ants are in place by now and covered by a tupperware lid.There are clay granules at the bottom of the nest chamber and Innes No.7 soil. Nervous times, I reckon I was phoning Andrew about every 3 hours at this point!!

Image

Image

RichardP
Worker
Posts: 437
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 10:30 am

Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Fri Jan 22, 2016 6:25 pm

Ok, so totally ignoring Andrew's advice (not something I would generally advocate) I have added fish.. Striped Barbs and Platys. I've also added some natural plants. Also giving the ants some orange peel by the look of it. I've still got the tupperware dish lid over the ants. Having kept other ant species I was very worried about taking that lid off an exposing the ants to a lot of light. I needn't have worried I don't think they even noticed when I eventually removed the lid.

Image
Last edited by RichardP on Fri Jan 22, 2016 8:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Deansie26
Major
Posts: 1237
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:30 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by Deansie26 » Fri Jan 22, 2016 6:48 pm

Brilliant Richard, nice to read how things developed over a short period, can't beat a journal. Looking forward to the updates
Can I ask where you got the glass nest box?

RichardP
Worker
Posts: 437
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 10:30 am

Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Fri Jan 22, 2016 6:50 pm

Some weeks (22/10/2015) later and the fungus is growing. The leaf in the picture is Cherry Laurel. They will take it but it's dense and unwieldy so I moved back to privet. And the occasional grape. you can see in the second picture that my system for getting ants back out of the water was resulting in mould on the wood sticks coming up out of the water. I was starting to think about other solutions.

Image

Image

RichardP
Worker
Posts: 437
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 10:30 am

Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Fri Jan 22, 2016 7:04 pm

Another change of tack with the walkway. I began to realise that I needed to keep as many of the ants out of the water as possible I devised a 3 inch wide walkway covered in sand. This idea didn't last long as I used play sand and it never really set so when an ant was at the edge the sand would give way and throw them in. You can see I've added a ornamental aquarium pyramid for a bit of shelter for the fish.

Image

RichardP
Worker
Posts: 437
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 10:30 am

Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Fri Jan 22, 2016 7:14 pm

Roll forward to January 2016. A lot has changed. The fungus is now about 1500 cubic centimetres. Which has grown from about 25 cubic centimetres back in September. Plenty of live plant now. The ant salvage system is now based on a tall grassy plastic plant that is draped in floating java moss. As the floating ant swirls round it gets caught in the moss and climbs the artificial grass to safety.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9cxtx9req38ad ... 8.mp4?dl=0

RichardP
Worker
Posts: 437
Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2016 10:30 am

Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Fri Jan 22, 2016 7:21 pm

deansie26 wrote:Brilliant Richard, nice to read how things developed over a short period, can't beat a journal. Looking forward to the updates
Can I ask where you got the glass nest box?
Hi, I got the glass box from Antstore.com. A German company. Very good range of products. shipping is a bit heavy. I'm hoping that Britishants.com can become the UK based alternative!

edit - I realise after reading more on this forum that most people will know of Antstore.com! (for anyone who doesn't, they are a German company!!!)
Last edited by RichardP on Fri Jan 22, 2016 10:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Post Reply