Acrylic Transparent Mini Ant Nest Glass Nest Tube Farm Experiment Small Colony Feeding Area Ant Observation Science 50x50x50mm

Bought this for a little founding colony of camponotus chromaiodes. They're a very slow growing species so this should be good for them for some time. Just put it all together and had zero issues. Biggest annoyance was peeling the protective flim off the panels but that was very minor and I appreciate the protective layer for shipping. For what you pay, this is a great setup for bigger ant species in their founding stage! Not sure I would trust it with tiny species.There are no directions included, but it's easy to put together if you just look at the product picture. Tabs insert into slots and then you slide on a silicon ring to hold it in place. It comes with extras plus an extra nut and bolt for the lid if you happen to loose one. Test tube fits nicely in the rubber grommets, both for the back stand and for the insertion into the tiny outworld. Rotate the test tube side to side as you gently apply force and the tube will slide right in! I can pick up the outworld and the test tube doesn't budge. I would still support both for safety, but I'm impressed with this little ant nest!

The only thing I don't like about it is that the top simply sits on it. If you have a kid/cat/dog who likes to mess with things, keep it well out of reach.Otherwise it is easy to assemble, very sturdy, and attractive. I got this for a queen I captured locally during nuptial flights. She doesn't like the tube end, where I provided my own make-shift cap that fits over for darkness. She hangs out in the box/feeding chamber.

Nifty little setup; definitely more than I could put together myself with similar materials, especially when taking the price into consideration. I caught a queen in early spring this year, and upon setting up the tube with cotton and distilled water and connecting it to the little 'outworld', I popped her in and she settled right into her new digs. Now, as you can see in the pictures, she has a few workers and additional eggs!A few points, starting with the pros:- Nice and sturdy. I can pick it up from either side, and the tube absolutely does not move.- The pieces fit tightly together, with bands to hold them in place snugly. These also act as gap-fillers of sorts.- None of the material is porous, so you generally don't have to worry about mold.Now for the cons:- Does not come with directions. This wasn't an issue for me, but if you are someone for whom looking at a picture or diagram and assembling something is an issue, yeah.- The "lid" is not held in place by anything. You may see screws in the photos, but those are just to secure the mesh screening. That lid pops right out. Not that you'd be handling it roughly with live critters inside anyway, but it does just sit in the crevice. So, be careful when handling the enclosure as a whole.- The grommets that surround the tube are extremely tight. This is is good for the construction, but I definitely would not let a child (or an impatient adult) install these, as they're going around a glass test tube, and if you were to force them, the tension might shatter it.- Definitely not for tiny ant species. Though fairly tightly sealed, there are definitely cracks where very small species - especially larvae of same - could get stuck and injured.- It doesn't come with a cover for the tube. The tube setup is recommended because it is supposed to simulate a burrow underground that the queen digs for herself to lay eggs in darkness and quiet. I simply used a piece of foil, loosely wrapped around the tube, so I could move it easily without disturbing her, and so I could easily check in on her to see how things were progressing.- The tube being secure and snug is sort of a double-edged sword. When I went to check on her and her contingent of workers this week, I saw that the water in the tube was running low. For a few days I kept putting a few drops of distilled water on a cotton wad in the outworld, as a stopgap, but I finally just bought a formicarium for them to move into. I was afraid moving the tube too much would disturb the budding colony, and even so, I didn't want to risk drowning them in the process of adding water.Overall, I do recommend this if you're looking to temporarily house a queen if you don't want to break the bank on a founding formicarium, but also want more than just a test tube setup. Just don't expect a lot of frills - like instructions.

The media could not be loaded. Perfect little setup for my setup. No instructions included, but pulling up the ad on Amazon helped me get it fully assembled on my 3rd try. The protective plastic film is a pain to remove without scratching the acrylic, so be careful where you scrape up a piece to try and grab with tweezers. It would have been better if the included test tube had a water port, but the regular tube isn’t a deal breaker. Very stable, snug fitting connections, 5 extra assembly bands and a spare bolt/nut “just in case” … very appreciated by my clumsy meat hooks. Well worth paying $3 more than that mistake that probably popped up in your search. I will be ordering many more to house many queens. Thank you Dellmao, keep up the good work

I ordered two. One had a decent seal but I still needed tape. The other was very loose and was not suitable for ants. The top is difficult to remove when accessing the outworld.

Exactly as described and very simple to put together great product.

It's well suited for ant keeping but there were no instructions so it took some assembly which wasn't so bad but the hole for the test tube is pretty small and the metal mesh is kind of flimsy. over all it's a good buy but maybe throw in extra test tubes of the same size and a booklet for assembly.

If you’re planning to start an ant colony, this is a very convenient habitat for them. Highly recommended.