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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2013 10:32:07 GMT 1
hi all Ive had my Messor Barbarus workers have all died slowly one by one over the last few weeks, it now looks like just the queen is left and shes wandering around the habitat. im not sure if there's something wrong with where they are (i have them housed in a glass topped aerated concrete block habitat. Ive provided many different seeds which in the early days got moved inside and stored in the chambers, there is water available from the test tube the came in and in the foraging area via some soaked cotton wool in a plastic cap, even tried some sugar water mix in the last week, the whole lot is sitting on top of my skink vivarium heat lamp, so its reasonably warm but not hot from the heat conducted through the wood and concrete not sure why the queens not been replenishing the workers, any ideas?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2013 10:55:27 GMT 1
ive never kept thi species before so i cant help that much but are you keeping the nest dmp and dark?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2013 11:21:06 GMT 1
I have some stuff to say but I'm in bed so I'll post my response later on .
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Post by Myrm on Jan 4, 2013 11:40:22 GMT 1
I have some stuff to say but I'm in bed so I'll post my response later on . Why are you still in your bin lid bed? It's 1:40PM here so that means it must be 10:40AM there!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2013 12:06:56 GMT 1
Hahaha, oh I'm so lazy.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2013 13:05:12 GMT 1
ive been up since 7 antboy, keep up
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2013 16:18:19 GMT 1
ive never kept thi species before so i cant help that much but are you keeping the nest dmp and dark? yup it gets sprayed until it soaks up water and there is a thick card over the living chambers
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2013 5:53:39 GMT 1
Hi derpsik,
Messor barbarus are notoriously hard to start up. How large was the colony before this happened? What have you fed them?
From my years on the different forums I have noticed that many keepers of Messor barbarus opt for bare Y-tong nests. I do not believe this to be as good of a nesting material as a simple tank with sterilized soil or sand specifically for this species.
I'm also rather concerned about the watering techniques being used. Unfortunately misting is often a unreliable system for stone nests. How long does the nest stay noticeably moist? Does it at all?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2013 20:49:24 GMT 1
Limes has pretty much said what I was going to say.
I would definitely keep away from misting their nest as Messors do like it quite dry. If you can, try and move them out of the formicarium they are in and move them into a, like what Limes said, a tank with sterilized soil or sand in. This will be far more natural for them and they will be at home. I have read on other forums that you do need to leave Messors to do what they need to do. Keep them dark as they can easily be stressed out. Are you heating them?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2013 20:55:35 GMT 1
Well Antboy, misting is normally ineffective for providing enough moisture in nests, not too much. However the point still stands. No more misting; get a tank!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2013 1:47:08 GMT 1
Get a tank! Lol. But yes misting doesn't do the job terribly well, it would be better to drop water with a pipet as the water would be more concentrated and you wod be able to decide better on how much water you will use.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2013 17:49:22 GMT 1
cool thanks for all the ideas guys, woke up this morning to a dead queen and a lonely worker pushing stuff around the arena, going to buy a proper start up kit and see if I can start again.
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Post by Myrm on Jan 6, 2013 17:52:41 GMT 1
cool thanks for all the ideas guys, woke up this morning to a dead queen and a lonely worker pushing stuff around the arena, going to buy a proper start up kit and see if I can start again. Hi Derpsik. I am vary sorry to hear about the loss of the colony, but it's good to see you're not giving up. I have lost more colonies than I care to recall, but it makes up for it when you see one right from the start to the natural end.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2013 18:27:00 GMT 1
sorry to hear that derpsik
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2013 0:43:49 GMT 1
I am sorry to hear that. I can understand the hardship of getting, maybe not this particular species, your colony up and running. I have a Pogonomyrmex barbatus, and she has had issues with keeping the workers alive for very long. They are not the easiest species to work with but in my opinion the most fun.
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