Begginer Set Up Advice.

Advice and help for new keepers and those starting to keep Leaf Cutting Ants for the first time.
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drcarta
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Begginer Set Up Advice.

Post by drcarta » Sun Mar 06, 2016 7:04 pm

Hi, I am interested in starting a colony but I am really struggling to find good start up set up advice.
I would like to know what I would need, how to set it up and what conditions I will need to replicate and the best ways to do so..
Step by step advice would be great, videos or pictures even better.

Thankyou.

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Acromyrmexbob
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Re: Begginer Set Up Advice.

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Sun Mar 06, 2016 7:49 pm

Daniel, thats a big question. (moved this here, better to attract the right advice I think)
There are guides available. The main thing to consider is keeping Leaf Cutters is all about a stabe temperature of around 23-25C and as close to 100% humidity in the air directly around the fungus as its possible to get. So you will need to consider how to provide these two factors efficiently and your colony will thrive. EVERY failure of Leaf Cutting Ants is directly attributable to one of these being wrong.....unless disaster strikes and your queen drowns or you stand on them or something!! :cry:
My own personal view is that if this is your first colony you should start off with a setup where the nest is in some sort of compost or soil. This protects your colony from drying out and provides a much more stable temperature regime.
You can house them in a fish tank with a couple of inches at the bottom of water with an aquarium heater in it. Place two bricks, one at each end. On one place a plastic tub filled with peaty compost and on the other you will place the leaves. A branch acts as a walk way. Set the heater at 30C and this will cause warm humid air to surround the nest. This is the most basic setup. Check out the journals and the build threads for lots of ideas and ASK QUESTIONS here.

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Deansie26
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Re: Begginer Set Up Advice.

Post by Deansie26 » Sun Mar 06, 2016 8:31 pm

Hello and welcome to the forum. There is not one way to keep them as long as you get the humidity and temp right. Your best to look through the forum for the information you need as you will learn more that way and have a better chance of doing well with them. Check out members journals, new keepers area etc.
Jamie

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Deansie26
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Re: Begginer Set Up Advice.

Post by Deansie26 » Sun Mar 06, 2016 8:33 pm

I totally agree with what Andrew says about keeping your first colony in soil and an aquarium type set up gives you the best chance to do well and is certainly more forgiving to a new keeper.

Vendayn
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Re: Begginer Set Up Advice.

Post by Vendayn » Mon Jun 27, 2016 7:38 am

Acromyrmexbob wrote:Daniel, thats a big question. (moved this here, better to attract the right advice I think)
There are guides available. The main thing to consider is keeping Leaf Cutters is all about a stabe temperature of around 23-25C and as close to 100% humidity in the air directly around the fungus as its possible to get. So you will need to consider how to provide these two factors efficiently and your colony will thrive. EVERY failure of Leaf Cutting Ants is directly attributable to one of these being wrong.....unless disaster strikes and your queen drowns or you stand on them or something!! :cry:
My own personal view is that if this is your first colony you should start off with a setup where the nest is in some sort of compost or soil. This protects your colony from drying out and provides a much more stable temperature regime.
You can house them in a fish tank with a couple of inches at the bottom of water with an aquarium heater in it. Place two bricks, one at each end. On one place a plastic tub filled with peaty compost and on the other you will place the leaves. A branch acts as a walk way. Set the heater at 30C and this will cause warm humid air to surround the nest. This is the most basic setup. Check out the journals and the build threads for lots of ideas and ASK QUESTIONS here.
I have a question about this. How exactly does this look? I am guessing the tank sits in the water? But then how do you get humidity? Is the tank sitting in a tub or something? But then all that does is have open air around the tub. I haven't found pictures of this, and maybe I'm being dumb, but I'm confused in how this looks. Or do you buy TWO tanks, one for water and the other in the middle? And how do you expand it later on? Cause you can't really drill a glass aquarium without a high risk of it shattering. And I definitely do not or can afford diamond drill cutters, and even then its still risky. The glass aquariums I can find in the states (at least California) are made of pretty cheap nasty glass, that I wouldn't even try to drill with a diamond drill cutter.

Anyone have a link potentially to a journal or thread with this? I have spent a lot of time looking, and been finding pretty sophisticated setups that are out of my current ability (especially since I plan to move this year). But nothing that actually looks like what you described. I'll keep looking and see if I can't find something.

(edit: And of course I ask and its one of the first posts in the journal section and somehow I missed it

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

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