Problem with atta not growing

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MartinD
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Re: Problem with atta not growing

Post by MartinD » Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:53 am

DEANSIE, NO IT IS NOT, BUT IT IS ARCHED AWAY FROM DOOR SO AIR CAN FLOW BEHIND IT. ALSO I KEEP CAREFUL EYE ON AMBIENT TEMP IN CUPBOARD. I HAVE JUST BOUGHT TWO SMALLER SIZES, FOR SUMMER USE IF REQUIRED AT ALL. I ALSO OPEN/CLOSE CUPBOARD DOOR AS REQ'D. DO YOU THINK THIS IS OK? Sorry for CAPS.

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Deansie26
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Re: Problem with atta not growing

Post by Deansie26 » Fri Mar 11, 2016 10:45 am

I personally wouldn't have that heat mat there without a thermostat mate, it is a large heat mat as well.
You may be checking the temperature at the fungus and be thinking its ok at 25 degrees but if the temp rises in the cupboard it's the mat connected to the thermostat under the ants that will turn of so in effect your set up is going back to what it was before if you know what I mean. Reduced humidity.

MartinD
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Re: Problem with atta not growing

Post by MartinD » Fri Mar 11, 2016 11:00 am

yeah ok, get your point. ta

MartinD
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Re: Problem with atta not growing

Post by MartinD » Thu Mar 24, 2016 7:40 am

Hi guys, :( I have changed nothing in the setup and the nest seems to be reverting back to it's old ways e.g not growing. So I had an initial really good growth spurt but since then its been getting smaller. It's heading back to size when I first posted, but fungus still looks v.healthy , i see a bundle of fresh new eggs thos morning and I have changed nothing in my setup since it had the growth spurt and I thought my problems were solved! Any ideas? Maybe i still need to raise humidity, but how can they be happy one minute and not the next when nothing has changed?

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Deansie26
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Re: Problem with atta not growing

Post by Deansie26 » Thu Mar 24, 2016 8:14 am

I'm sorry to hear that Martin, if I was you I would consider just making an aquarium set up for the time being, there very easy and pretty bullet proof.
Humidity is a funny thing, an example of this is the cylinder my Atta are in. The substrate looks bone dry, some droplets are on the lid but nothing on the sides. Because the heat surrounds the units pretty uniformly it stays in the air and the ants do well, I've never measured it since its been set up. (I know that's not good practice obviously. I uses to test fish tank parameters loads when I started out now I never do, only the initial cycling checks.)

If you want to investigate your set up more we can though, post a photo and some quickck bullet points if specifics.

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Acromyrmexbob
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Re: Problem with atta not growing

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Thu Mar 24, 2016 12:43 pm

Ant activity also affects humidity a great deal. ie when they are actively feeding the fungus in a low humidity container the air directly around the fungus can be good because of the leaves. When these keaves dry, so long as the ants keep adding, you can get good growth for a while in an area that is too dry. If there is then a period where the ants are not as active then the fungus goes into decline because the buffer of the fresh leaves has gone. So I would say this is a humidity problem, almost definately. Until you can verify that your humidity at the fungus is well over 90% I fear you will always be on this yoyo journey with your colony. This is definitely worth fixing finally once and for all. Jamies suggestion of an external tank to house your various components in is worth a look, if you can control the air around the outside of your nest then you are some of the way to solving your problem.

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Re: Problem with atta not growing

Post by MartinD » Fri Mar 25, 2016 8:25 am

I have sad news. Queen died last night. She looked agitated. Conditions in setup were ok, it was humid and warm but not too hot. I think honestly she hasn't been right for a while, this colony never behaved like my previous atta colony that was successessful, never the same constant foraging mentality etc. Also had an acro colony before that, which did well. Acrobob unfortunately i'll be in contact to buy new one from you, have ants and fungus left over from old, would like to try and amalgamate the two, i've seen link on here before talking about that, could anyone send link. Ta :( sad day!

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Re: Problem with atta not growing

Post by Formica123 » Fri Mar 25, 2016 8:29 am

Why don't you use an aquarium setup this time - as they definitely work so you won't have many problems
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: Problem with atta not growing

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Fri Mar 25, 2016 10:06 am

Martin, really sorry to hear that. Such a shame. We tried just about everything to sort this. These colonies require such an investment in time and energy, it is always like losing a close friend when anything happens to them, especially after we thought things were sorted.
I dont have any small Acromyrmex for sale, Sean at British Ants and Jon at Antkit sell them at the same sort of price, I have medium Acros for sale as does Jon at Ant Kit. Hope that helps.

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Re: Problem with atta not growing

Post by MartinD » Fri Mar 25, 2016 12:47 pm

Was after atta again, small or medium, do you have any Andrew?

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