General Care Guide
General husbandry guidance for a new leaf cutting ant display. Species-specific notes are on each species page — this covers the fundamentals every exhibit team should know before a colony arrives.
Initial Setup
When your colony arrives, keep it in its original travel container and place that container directly into your display tank. Remove the seal over the entrance hole and place the entire box into the display — don't tip the colony out. For the first two weeks, feed the ants close to the nest to give them time to reorganise fungus chambers and settle in before extending them onto a full foraging trail.
Temperature
Maintain nest temperature between 23-26°C (73-79°F). Always measure temperature directly at the fungus garden using a probe thermometer rather than relying on general enclosure air readings — the two can differ significantly.
Humidity
Humidity should be as close to 100% relative humidity as possible. Never let it drop below 80% — colony health suffers quickly below that line. As with temperature, measure humidity right at the fungus garden location, since it can vary a great deal over a short distance within the same enclosure.
Ongoing Maintenance
Daily care for soil-based setups includes spraying the nest surface to maintain humidity. Activity typically starts low after installation and increases steadily as the colony grows and settles. Keep in regular contact with an experienced keeper or your supplying reseller so early warning signs can be caught before they become a problem — our life support monitoring service can help with this automatically.
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