Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

deansie26 wrote:Nice to see your thinking out the box, domes would be a first on here, I've never seen them used apart from at that museum. So the try will float above the fish tank and get heat warm air coming of the water is that right? Will the tank be open top?

The tray was going to sit over the entire top of the tank and get heated by the rising heat from the water below but I have spotted a flaw in my plan. If I need to access the tank below I'm going to have to move the entire tray off the top of the tank every time I need to change their food! I will have to make sure the domes are fixed onto the tray and that I don't drop it!

Acromyrmexbob wrote:Hi Eloise.
Bold plans!
Looking like a big project. I love the different elements here. Domes, fish, should be interesting to watch. Tube diameter should be from 20mm to 35mm internal. Any smaller and the will struggle to pass when they are busy, any wider and they might fill it with fungus.

Thank you!

This is probably a silly question but does fungus need to be on a substrate? and if so what substrate should I use?

Bitterlime wrote:This is probably a silly question but does fungus need to be on a substrate? and if so what substrate should I use?

Doesn't have to be but I'd recommend it, especially on your first clinical type. It doesn't need to be deep, just enough to hold moisture and leather move it around and block what they like. You will still be able to see. Soil, peat, clay, is up to you really what you use.
Once the fungus is filling the container they will remove all the soil anyway so it will be soil-less in the end

I have a new plan for the setup! sadly I haven't been able to get any domes that are the right size! However I have ordered a vitopod, it has a digital thermostat controller, which is great because I can easily control the temperature, it is acrylic and has plenty of space, the dimensions are L56cm x W55cm H15cm. It has put me in debt but hopefully it will be worth it! It has arrived today! It does have ventilation holes which I'm going to cover with thin mesh! instead of connecting the two setups with tubing I am going to try and use rope, the rope's diameter is 2cm! Im going to set it up and see if everything works and then hopefully I can move the fungus! I'm going to put the fungus on soil because I can just use some of the soil from their nest.



This is going to be the outworld, my mum took one of the platforms out to increase the space for the catfish!

Sounds like a plan! Like the thermostatic control. Is it ant proof. Also can the lid be fixed to the base so it cant be accidentally dislodged. Could be fun when your colony is epically big!

Looks interesting, never seen them before

Acromyrmexbob wrote:Sounds like a plan! Like the thermostatic control. Is it ant proof. Also can the lid be fixed to the base so it cant be accidentally dislodged. Could be fun when your colony is epically big!

It's much bigger than I imagined it to be! it's defiantly not ant proof at the moment because it has large vents and a few small holes round the sides, but I'm going to put mesh over the big vents and tape over the small holes. I built it the wrong way round at first so the lid wouldn't sit properly but now that it's has been built properly the lid clicks into place and the lid would only come if if someone knocked the whole setup onto the floor, But I might clip it down just to make sure!

I like it. Looks as if it could work.

Acromyrmexbob wrote:I like it. Looks as if it could work.

Yeah hopefully it will work! I will be able to move the fungus in soon once I have got the vitopod to the right temperature! Talking of moving the fungus how do I get the fungus out? Can use my hand or will that break the fungus?