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!
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RichardP
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Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Fri Sep 02, 2016 4:09 pm

Quick update.. I will do a video with commentary very soon so you can see for yourself what's happening but in the interim...

The colony is about a year old now. I started with about 100 ants and I now have, I would estimate, as a minimum 3,000 ants.

I now have four decent sized fungus gardens. One in each available chamber. This is a mass of about 7,000 square centimeters of fungus garden.

There are now lots of soldiers and they are very often visible. Generally at the entrance to the main (original) nest. They are massive!! Extremely impressive and I take great delight in showing them off when clients/friends are visiting.

I was away for two separate weeks in august and my sister did one week and my dad did the other week. Everything survived with them visiting every 2 days to add leaves and change filters. My dad must have seen a soldier as he described with some horror seeing an "ant the size of a wasp with a head like a table tennis ball."

I explained that the massive head was filled almost entirely with the muscles needed to close it's razor sharp jaws. I don't think that helped.

They are extending their living quarters in the tank by building mud/clay/leaf structures extending away from the nest over the glass bridge. I'll show this in my video. They are also building back from the pipe exit so they should meet in the middle of the bridge.

As I say, video soon (with commentary, ha).

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Andyj
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Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by Andyj » Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:36 pm

Hi Richard, glad to hear that your ants coped with your holiday and i'm very much looking forward to enjoying your video.. I'm still wanting to get Atta, and your Dads vivid description of the soldier has pushed me that much closer. :) Your ants must be producing a fare amount of waste by now, so are your fish coping with the amount of ammonia this must be producing ?

RichardP
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Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Sat Sep 03, 2016 12:27 am

Andyj wrote:Hi Richard, glad to hear that your ants coped with your holiday and i'm very much looking forward to enjoying your video.. I'm still wanting to get Atta, and your Dads vivid description of the soldier has pushed me that much closer. :) Your ants must be producing a fare amount of waste by now, so are your fish coping with the amount of ammonia this must be producing ?
That's an interesting question Andy. I think its really important in the context of my type of setup.

Firstly, as far as I can tell from consistent water testing, the dumping of fungus waste in the water doesn't seem to affect the ammonia, nitrite or PH levels of the aquarium water.

I'd be really in interested to know what the chemical composition of fungus waste is.

My fish and plants thrive. I am fairly certain that the fish/shrimps actually take nutrition from the discarded residue. I hardly feed them and there is a distinct lack of excitement when I introduce food.

For the first 9 months or so, all dumping was done in the tank and it was at a level that could be serviced by a large external aquarium filter accompanied by an added surface skimmer (surface skimmer because ant waste floats - as such, the surface skimmer takes the brunt of it).

At about the 10 month point, the ants decided to totally destroy and recreate the first fungus garden and this caused a massive amount of waste in the water. I was changing the surface filter four times a day and the accumulation of detritus was enough to turn the water yellow. At its worst I was also doing 10% water changes every other day.

It was around this time that the ants started to colonise the external nest chambers and this seemed to coincide with a noticeable drop in waste dumped in the water.

So as a setup, it's working. It may even have some symbiotic qualities.

Fish - 1 Platy, 1 Pleco, 2 Cory Catfish, 3 Danios, 5 Bleeding Heart Tetras, 3 5 stripe barbs, 12 shrimps

RichardP
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Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Sun Sep 04, 2016 12:25 pm

Ok.. video with commentary and masterful videography...


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Leafcutter
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Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by Leafcutter » Sun Sep 04, 2016 5:00 pm

How come I did not get a mention :lol:.

The fungus looks great by the way. Expansion time soon...

Atta cephalotes (2019)
Camponotus detritus (2018)
Camponotus maculatus (2018)

RichardP
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Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by RichardP » Sun Sep 04, 2016 5:37 pm

Leafcutter wrote:How come I did not get a mention :lol:.

The fungus looks great by the way. Expansion time soon...
Ha.. sorry about that.. there was loads of people I forgot.. It was the pressure of a live transmission environment...

Formica123
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Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by Formica123 » Sun Sep 04, 2016 6:29 pm

Looks fantastic, I had just put my headphones on and heard 'Hi Marco' :lol:
Was that the queen I spotted at 1:49?
I keep over 20 species of ant, inc. Acromyrmex Octospinosus
Owner of AntKeepingShop (www.antkeepingshop.weebly.com)

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Andyj
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Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by Andyj » Sun Sep 04, 2016 7:26 pm

Excellent Richard and i'm so pleased your not Scottish otherwise we would have needed subtitles. Nice vid and well done. I would love this in my office.

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Deansie26
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Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by Deansie26 » Sun Sep 04, 2016 7:29 pm

Ha ha brilliant Richard, you have set the standard now! It's funny doing the commentary isn't it, at least you don't have the Jock accent to try and soften like myself. Joking aside though it made your video great, I know I prefer it even if I don't like doing it myself. You must have the biggest colony on the forum now possibly, looks great. Very watchable when you get to your size.
Look forward to the next! :D

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Bitterlime
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Re: Atta - Aquarium setup

Post by Bitterlime » Sun Sep 04, 2016 8:12 pm

Great video!

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