Vendayn's Acromyrmex versicolor journal

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!
Vendayn
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Vendayn's Acromyrmex versicolor journal

Post by Vendayn » Sun Jul 03, 2016 1:50 am

Got this colony from someone locally (Southern California) early in the year. They didn't grow for a while, since I was keeping them too cold. I then moved them into the closet (its always 75-80 degrees in there) and that was a month ago. They've grown really fast since I put them in the closet! From around 30 workers, to currently over 100 workers in just a month. They are growing really fast.

Here is the formicarium (older picture)

Image

fungus (3-4 months ago)

Image

Fungus today ( :D )

Image

In that picture, the right container I packed with dried raspberry leaves (can barely see it). I noticed the ants like to dig in it, and in the foraging area have made tunnels/chambers in the small pile of raspberry leaves. So I decided to try it as an actual substrate.

So far they've dug in it quite a bit, and have used most of the raspberry leaves for the fungus.

If I don't move out of state, I'll be making an aquarium setup with an actual soil substrate.

The aquarium setup will be pretty much a copy of

http://www.leafcuttingants.com/www.leaf ... f=13&t=527

Which I really like his setup, looks pretty easy to do and doesn't require much actual building. Especially since I can't use drills/most tools because my hands start getting super shaky when using them for some reason. His setup looks like something I can mostly do on my own.

For the setup my colony is in now, I bought it from someone locally who specifically designed it for Acromyrmex/fungus growers. It works really well, but space will eventually become an issue.

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Deansie26
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Re: Vendayn's Acromyrmex versicolor journal

Post by Deansie26 » Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:37 am

Hey Vendayn, looks like your colony is on track now well done! I've seen that little unit on line before in pictures, clever little design although long term it may be difficult to feed them.. That's for sharing though, interesting.

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Acromyrmexbob
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Re: Vendayn's Acromyrmex versicolor journal

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:41 pm

Hi Vendayn, sorry, not been on the forum for ages due to work commitments. Do you know what species it is? Looks like Acromyrmex versicolor? The first picture of the fungus shows it to be in poor condition. You were lucky to save it. The second picture is a different story. Really well done with that.

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Re: Vendayn's Acromyrmex versicolor journal

Post by Formica123 » Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:44 pm

Acromyrmexbob wrote:Hi Vendayn, sorry, not been on the forum for ages due to work commitments. Do you know what species it is? Looks like Acromyrmex versicolor? The first picture of the fungus shows it to be in poor condition. You were lucky to save it. The second picture is a different story. Really well done with that.
:? The title has 'Acromyrex Versicolor' in it haha

I know that versicolor actually take dry foliage, not fresh like octospinosus, why is this? Surely fresh would provide a higher humidity ?
I keep over 20 species of ant, inc. Acromyrmex Octospinosus
Owner of AntKeepingShop (www.antkeepingshop.weebly.com)

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Acromyrmexbob
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Re: Vendayn's Acromyrmex versicolor journal

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Wed Aug 10, 2016 6:12 am

[/quote]

:? The title has 'Acromyrex Versicolor' in it haha

?[/quote]


Okay, by bad. Jet lag residue. Forget this thread and never talk of it again!! Was tempted to use my mystical admin powers to eliminate the evidence of my blunder but thought it would show more humility if I simply left it for others to show restraint.

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Re: Vendayn's Acromyrmex versicolor journal

Post by Vendayn » Sun Sep 25, 2016 6:26 am

Hi everyone! I haven't actually visited here in a long time. In truth, I'm kind of more a part of the formiculture forum where it is more US based. But, this forum is amazing as well and I kind of forgot about it. This place has a lot better information on Leafcutters, especially since keeping Leafcutter ants isn't very common in North America. I think partly because not many states actually have them, and like in Europe (in general), people can just buy them online no matter where they live (where it would be illegal across state lines in the US).

But, here is ten new pictures. :) You can see its actually a massive difference from not too long ago. Even back when I took pictures in July, its a night and day difference. In July, the colony was vastly smaller and the fungus wasn't taking up the entire container either. My older pictures in this journal, you can really see a big change.

Also, the "dark" stuff you see is peat moss. I bought a bag of it. I find the ants really like digging in it, and it retains moisture really well. Plus peat moss doesn't mold nearly as much, but the fungus seems to like it. They even created a strange "mound" or dome structure that is in a couple of the pictures. Guess to retain humidity or something.


Here is an Imgur link (the pictures showed way too big on the forum for some reason)

http://imgur.com/gallery/eQEpw

Also, if the fungus looks "weird", like its melting or something. That is just the lighting, because the camera doesn't do too well at night (even with all the lights on). If I took them in the day, it would look normal. It is because of the flash (but without it, its worse). The fungus is actually incredibly healthy! And growing at a very fast pace.

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Re: Vendayn's Acromyrmex versicolor journal

Post by Deansie26 » Sun Sep 25, 2016 8:59 am

Nice update Vendayn, glad you came back to Vegas sit. Are there other keepers on your forum? Be great if they could tell us about there's too!

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Acromyrmexbob
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Re: Vendayn's Acromyrmex versicolor journal

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Wed Oct 19, 2016 12:14 am

Would be nice to ask any other US Leaf Cutting Ant keepers to join and share. I am coming to US in a couple of months I think to supply a couple of zoos and museums with Leaf Cutters. So would be great to hear more from anyone in US with these ants.

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Re: Vendayn's Acromyrmex versicolor journal

Post by Vendayn » Tue Nov 15, 2016 5:21 am

I did post a link here on Formiculture forum, probably will post one again in my own journal next time I update it.

A lot has changed with my colony since my last update.

Winter is here, and that actually meant an overall drop in temperature inside the apartment. They were being kept slightly too cold to begin with (70-71 degrees Fahrenheit). But, were still growing nicely and doing fine so I didn't change something that was working. However, once the nights (and some days) got cold, that temperature dropped to 67-69 degrees. There was quite a die off of fungus in the main garden they have after that. Though the fungus in the other containers with the peat moss were doing fine still.

So, I hooked up a heater attached to a thermometer. Before this, the workers were always kinda sluggish and moved slowly. I kind of thought maybe that is just how they were since they were always like that. Turns out after connecting the heater, they moved "normally" and activity went way up.

The heater turns on at 78.0 degrees, and turns off at 81.0 degrees. Pretty constant, and never too hot or too cold.

This was 2-3 weeks ago.

Today, a third fungus garden has started, most of the fungus in the main garden recovered and growing again. And, there are TONS of eggs. More brood than I've ever seen in the colony. Plus, the ants are more active and foraging more.

I also gave my colony crushed dried grasshoppers, mealworms and crickets. I bought a container of dried insects (meant for Bearded Dragons) at a local petstore (petsmart or petco, don't remember which) ages ago for my other ants. Turns out, this colony likes the dried insects more than my Pogonomyrmex do lol. My Pogonomyrmex rugosus ignore the stuff. Pretty much right away Acromyrmex workers picked up dried mealworm bits that I crushed up and took it to the fungus.

Interesting they took in dried insects (that I've had for ages, and also I think they were flash frozen), but they like it. So, now I got an additional food source for them.

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Re: Vendayn's Acromyrmex versicolor journal

Post by Vendayn » Tue Nov 15, 2016 5:25 am

Oh, also a weird "quirk" with this colony

Strangely, and I've observed this before. Everything on the right is ignored, except for their main garden. They blocked up the access to the foraging area on the right, and have always foraged to the left (the left side foraging container). No idea why that is. Even before they blocked access to the right foraging container, they barely used it. The workers don't even go to the container to the right, which is right next to the main garden. A bit weird. Not sure why they like going to the left (which is actually facing north) and never to the right (directly south). Its not a problem of course, just weird.

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