r/antkeeping • u/Historical_Might_86 • 2d ago

Formicarium Inverted nest and outworld set up

Post image

I’m helping my 7 year old with his new ant colony. I think we have iridomyrmex bicknelli and we are in Sydney.

We are thinking of using an old fish tank (10L) as an outworld. We are limited on space and I’m not game to drill a hole in glass so we are thinking of having the nest on top and for the ants to have access to the outworld via a tubing. Most vertical set up I have seen have the nest at the bottom.

I understand it will be months before they move out of the test tube so while they are in the test tube we can leave it in the outworld. I am hoping for a set up that would be future proof and give him the most visibility.

I have posted the approved building plan. Will this set up work?

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

4

u/Ok_Commission7932 2d ago

Assuming the nest is comfortable and there are anti-climbing countermeasures, looks ok. It's going to be tricky preventing them from climbing the tube and the exterior of the nest

2

u/Historical_Might_86 2d ago

Ooh thank you for raising that potential issue. I can probably put a sheet of acrylic and create an inner wall so that they don’t have access to the tubing.

3

u/CeilingTowel 1d ago

The tube exterior could be lined with your preferred ant barrier. I did it for the base of my sugar tower in the past so I can have an easier time switching it out. Else ants just like to climb onto anything high & shake their fists at you.

1

u/hcat1112 1d ago

i have seen Ronald Marcos make a nest similar to this for a weaver ant nest. I’ve attached a picture