My set-up

[Matthew]

As promised I took a few quick photos of my Atta and some of the termites. Quite hard work to get any with all the condensation.

https://goo.gl/photos/vQdCVsZHMDkpwA7V6

As you can see the colony is pritty tiny.

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[RichardP]

Very good sir - nice to see the queen.. I purchased a colony of about that size 15 months ago... I now have somewhere between 5000 and 10000 ants!!!

You're gonna need a bigger box

Interestingly I did see my queen a few weeks ago, I left the aquarium lights off for a few days and she settled on top of one of the gardens for a bit.

I was all like,

"Ooh, hello, haven't seen you in ages."

And she was all like,

"Piss off, I'm laying eggs."

[Matthew]

I've read all of your journal it's very impressive, took a lot of information from it.


If my colony did half as well as that I'd be happy.

I pritty much live in the dark and there's nowhere to hide at this point in time.






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[Acromyrmexbob]

Hi Matthew. Nice pictures. The fungus does not look as though it has been added to recently. Would I be right in thinking you have not long got this colony. There seems to be more ants than the fungus size suggests there should be, which either means the colony has lost fungus (possibly in transit?) or has not been feeding the fungus recently. Would any of that ring true?

[Matthew]

Yes your bang on the mark there. I didn't get the initial setup quite right and lost quite a lot of the fungus.

I've had a feeling with this one that they were happier but not entirely. They do add to it but not very frequent to be honest.

It's not the temp and not the food as I give them alot of variation. So it's deffinately the humidity, I'll see what I can do.

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[Acromyrmexbob]

Matthew, get a humidity meter and place the probe almost in the fungus, if possible not in contact with the ground. Get a reading. I would guess you will be around 70-80%. Personally I would give the ants some nest media such as sterilised soil or compost. Make this wet. Just maybe two dessert spoonfuls. They will immediately set about constructing a nest cavity around the fungus and this will help massively with the humidity. That will fix the problem I think.

[Matthew]

I had the same idea this morning before you advised me with the soil. So far it's been left alone at one end of the pod.

I've made sure the plaster Is damp and sealed up the vents better than previously. Hopefully less humidity will escape.

The 3 pictures show the current state of affairs. As you can see I've got a humidity gauge but it's not the most accurate so I'll get one with a probe tomorrow.

The humidity is still low but they are adding a couple of leaves at the moment.

https://goo.gl/photos/n8dhVQMzH2moiyiK6

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[Matthew]

The setup is just two pods. The nest one with plaster which is heated using a mat and the other pod is just for feeding.

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[Acromyrmexbob]

So I think I have mentioned this before on this forum but it will still pickle your brain, it does mine anyway. The condensation within your nest chamber is the reason why the air around the fungus is too dry. Because the walls of the nest container will be slightly cooler than the air around the fungus, all of your water vapour is condensing on the cold walls and falling back into your base rather than staying in the air where you want it. One way to prevent this phenomenon is to insulate your nest box to make sure the walls are not influenced by the exterior conditions. If you can wrap your nest box up a little then all of your water vapour will stay in the air and your ants will benefit.

[Matthew]

I understand. Cheers for the help. I'll either have to raise my room temperature so I live in a jungle or sort some insulation out.

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