Animals To Eat Ants

[Seal36]

I am looking for an aquatic animal that lives only in water and will eat any ants that try to escape out of the Island. The water will be still but if we need too we can make the water move if we need to. I did not have an animal in mind wether it be frogs, turtles, shrimp or what ever as long as they live only in water and do not come on land. Thanks for your help from Tom

 

[RRaquariums]

What kind of tank are you setting up that has ants?

 

[Seal36]

It's at my work place we have the country's largest ant colony and are extending it again but the ants will be on a small island that is surrounded by still water which the ants might be able to stand on and try to escape if the reach the glass on the sides of the enclosure from Tom

 

[RRaquariums]

Well I have never seen a fish or frog that likes ants because there so acidic but maybe someone else has kept something that dose sorry.
Another option is to make the water flow with a power head or something ants won't usually try to go into or on moving water.

 

[Seal36]

Yeah we have pumps on the other tanks but on these new ones we want it to be very natural for the ants so do not want pumps in there unless we absolutely need them. We were also thinking there might be a turtle, shrimp or bugs that might be able to live in there and eat the ants from Tom

 

[RRaquariums]

Well without a pic of the set up I can't say what would be able to be kept in it.
How many gallons of water will there be?

 

[Seal36]

It's 20 gallons so about 90 litres and we are not sure how the island is going to look yet we think it's going to be a big piece of wood where the ants can't stand on and the wood under the water would provide places for the animal to hide.

 

[RRaquariums]

Well you will probably need a surface dwelling fish that hunts insects so maybe a betta or some tiger barbs anything that's aggressive should work I think.

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

True, most fish doesn't like ants coz of the formic acid they contain. Small black ants are usually the ones eaten over the red ones since they are 'sweeter' and less acidic than red ants. The red ones also usually has tough head and mouth parts that could prove hazardous to small fish.

Most medium-big gouramis, archerfish, halfbeaks, most tetras and even bettas eat small black ants.

 

[Seal36]

Ok thanks for your help guess I have to go down the insects route. I'm pretty sure the lethocerus patruelis will be fine in that tank and if not I'm sure there is another lethocerus species that will be from Tom

 

[Baccus]

Depending on if you want a biotype of set up for the ant island surrounded by fish, the only fish that spring to mind are many of the Amazon species of fish that are accustomed to eating ants which form living rafts to escape the annual flooding of the forest.
 
Many fish species enjoy eating ant eggs and they actually used to be used to get fish into breeding condition.

 

[Seal36]

Thank you for that information are there any specific amazon species that you know of that will eat the ants or is it all amazon fish from Tom

 

[Baccus]

Off the top of my head no, I don't recall any exact species. But I do remember that the BBC and probably Sir David Attenborough had mentioned the activity in one of their many documentaries, and even had footage of the fish nipping away at the raft of I think they where fire ants (could also have been army ants), as the ants drifted along  the surface of the water.