It’s the season of love and generosity.
A time when your friends and family give you gifts as a sign of love and gratitude.
Or in my case, a time when a fellow invertebrate hobbyist gave me a gift to add to my growing
menagerie of creatures, scaled, feathered, aquatic, colonial, slimy, and multi-legged.
This week AC Family, a friend of mine who you might know, named ExoticsLair from the
ExoticsLair Youtube channel sent me a gift.
He too is owner of a multitude of exotic creatures, and I can’t wait to see what he’s sent
me.
I know it’s alive and it’s big!
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a Youtube cross-over you have all been waiting for.
Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel!
Please subscribe to my channel and hit the bell icon.
Welcome to the AC Family.
Enjoy!
This big box wrapped in holiday wrapping arrived at my place today.
Hmm, let’s see.
Well, well well.
It’s from my good friend Exotics Lair!
What a surprise!
Just kidding!
I knew this was coming and have been waiting for it for days!
For the longest time, one of the most requested collabs from you guys has been to collab with
Exotics Lair!
I am sure many of you AC Family have seen his channel where he shows his various arachnids
and reptiles.
I love his channel and so I reached out to him to collab, and so we decided that for
the holiday season we’d get each other a new pet creature to add to our respective
critter rooms!
The rule was we could get each other anything we wanted.
Super cool right?
And so, here lies the box from Exotics Lair.
Quite a big box I must say.
What could be inside, I wonder?
Hmmm...
Well, there’s nothing left to do but to unwrap the gift.
And just like they say, you gotta rip the wrapper for good luck!
There you go!
Oh man!
Guys, look!
It was huge!
And sitting right there up against the glass!
Guess she was eager to be seen.
At first, I didn’t recognize the species, and this is what ExoticsLair had to say!
Hey!
What’s going on AC Family and what’s up AC.
If you guys don’t know already what this video is about.
Christmas is coming near.
It’s around the corner.
SO AC and I decided that we’re gonna buy each other Christmas presents.
How exciting!
Yeah.
I know.
So, what we did was we decided to pack each other an animal and just pass animal over
so we can unbox it and create an enclosure for it and care for it.
And all those good stuff.
By the time this video is uploaded, Christmas is probably just a few days away.
And my video should probably be up a few days after AC’s video.
Yeah so this is my channel.
Wow!
Self-promotion.
I’m not sure if AC’s gonna insert this clip before the unboxing or after his unboxing.
But yeah anyways if this is after the unboxing you guys already know what I bought for AC.
Well, it is this.
I have it as well.
Yay!
I actually wanted to get him a different animal but then all the animals that were there I
never have an experience
Yeah.
I am just a tarantula guy guys so what do you expect.
So anyways, this is the tarantula I got him.
I mean not this one but same species.
Well, this is Chako golden knee
Awesome!
A Chaco Golden-knee tarantula!
Thanks so much, ExoticsLair!
I love her and I love the setup you made for yours.
The spider’s colours definitely reminded me of my very first tarantula that I had years
ago as a kid, a close relative called a rose hair.
I can see where this Chaco golden-knee gets its name.
Look at those bright golden patches found on its knees.
See how beautiful she is?
I couldn’t wait for her to settle in to our Antiverse, AC style!
Check out what I had planned next!
So, I knew this setup wasn’t designed by ExoticsLair himself, but rather came with
the tarantula at purchase.
It’s a typical display terrarium, which works, but as you know, we here on the channel
like to spoil our creatures and give them the best living conditions possible.
Though a basic Chako Tarantula setup doesn’t need to be fancy, I wanted to give her a tarantula
paradise ideal for terrestrial tarantulas like herself.
I noticed she didn’t like to hang out much in the clay pot hide provided to her, but
rather chose to stay by the back of the tree stump.
It’s cool that she enjoys being out in the open so we can see her, but I hear the species
does like to dig.
Plus, I wanted to make her terrarium a bit more bioactive with some plants and soil creatures.
And with that AC Family, let’s create our new Chaco golden-knee tarantula a new home!
First, I had to remove the tarantula from the enclosure so we could work freely inside.
I wasn’t afraid, because as Exotics Lair said, these tarantulas are generally docile.
I just had to test her by tapping her a little with my plastic stick thingy, also making
sure not to startle her.
Regardless of how friendly a tarantula is, the fangs still work and a tarantula will
bite if they feel the need to.
But she poses no problem.
Ahhh there!
Isn’t she just magnificent?
She’s absolutely huge!
You wanna make sure when picking these tarantulas up you don’t drop them because the pedicle
which attaches the head to the abdomen isn’t designed to absorb shock very well in terrestrial
tarantulas like this.
I made sure areas of escape were blocked and quickly placed her holding container beneath
her.
And in she goes.
Now, let’s remove these big components inside the tank so I can begin transforming the land.
First, I removed this earthen pot.
Yes, in a bare bones set up this it looks nice and works, but I wanted something a bit
more natural looking for her hide.
Next, let’s address the big elephant in the room.
And by that, I mean this big tree trunk that looks like an elephant trunk.
Now to add more soil medium so I could give her more stuff to dig into, as well as for
growing some plants later, and for that I will be needing,
the Nucleus!
This bioactive soil, full of beneficial creatures and the worms will be essential in the growth
of plants in this terrarium, as well as keep it cleaner for our tarantula.
Next, I’ll be adding in some ordinary soil.
Now, for the centerpiece.
I wanted her burrow to be somewhere in the middle and so I placed this gorgeous tree
trunk here, which would offer a sort of hide, as well as give the terrarium an interesting
topography with varying levels.
As always, I like to design using the arm-chair format, highest decor and land at the back,
lower on the sides, and lowest at the front.
It makes for optimal viewing!
Next, are these philodendron and vein plants.
They are my go-to terrarium plants because they do well in low-light and varying water
conditions.
These tarantulas don’t need wet terrariums, so these plants will be perfect!
Next, I will add this piece of cork bark to further accentuate where the burrow should
be, just to spell out clearly where our tarantula could retreat to for a hide.
There we go!
Also, I added some sphagnum moss inside for comfort, as well as around the tank as a gorgeous
terrarium garnishing.
And the final touch is this water bowl.
Are you ready to see the final product AC Family?
Here it is.
AC Family, behold!
The new home of our Chako golden-knee tarantula.
I aimed to create her a tree-stump sanctuary, where she could burrow if she wanted to, as
well as have lots of room to wander if she wanted.
What do you think, AC Family?
Do you think she’ll like it?
Here is a close-up of the burrow.
Hopefully, she moves into this space.
Some tarantula keepers like to see their tarantulas 24-7, but I’m the type that is ok with just
seeing them half in and half out of their burrows at night, legs out and waiting for
prey!
We’ll see!
These gorgeous plants truly add a natural touch to this haven.
They’ll also be great for keeping humidity higher.
Finally, it is time to bring back the star of the show.
Here she is!
Go go go.
And into the terrarium we place her, and awesome right into the tunnel she goes!
Super cool!
Now let’s close the lid and allow her to rest.
She stood still for awhile in her new palace, but it wasn’t long before she started to
explore.
How I loved her so much!
She was so cute!
And oh, looks like she had found a second floor to what I thought was a bungalow!
She slipped into a cozy space above where I had expected her to hide.
She remained there for the night.
Haha!
Ahhh well, I guess you can lead a tarantula to a tank, but you can’t make them burrow!
Over the next few days, I watched her try out different areas of the terrarium, and
though I caught her resting inside her burrow a couple times, her favourite spot was right
here, on top of her bed of plants where she could sprawl out, chilling on her earthen
porch.
I’m thrilled to welcome this new gorgeous spider to the Antiverse.
Alright, guys you know what’s next right?
What should we name this new, huge Chaco Golden-knee tarantula?
Leave your name suggestions in the comments, and I’ll choose my top 5 favourites for
us to vote on in a future video.
Big thank you again to Exotics Lair!
Be sure to check his channel out on Monday to see what epic creature I got him!
I’ll tell you now, they’re one of my favourite creatures in the world, and I am certain it
would be the perfect addition to Exotics Lair’s exotics lair!
Thank you guys so much for watching, it’s ant and spider love forever!
Alright, guys did you enjoy today’s episode?
Be sure to leave your name suggestions for our new girl in the comments.
A lot more nature and animal-goodness coming up, plus we now upload twice a week for the
month of December anyway, so you know what to do!
Smash that subscribe button and bell icon for notifications now, and choose ALL, so
you get notified every time we upload these high quality nature videos of our Ant Room.
Hit the LIKE button if you enjoyed this video, as well!
Just a reminder, I wanted to let everyone know that AntsCanada.com is having its big
AC annual holidays Promo: the 20-2020 sale.
That's 20% off all Hybrid Series ant farms and gear packs from now until January 2020,
plus a free copy of our newly updated "Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook", right now at AntsCanada.com.
Click the link in
the description to get your AC ant farm today!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would like clues as to
what I got ExoticsLair for the Holidays!
Haha!
Go see if you can figure it out before his video uploads!
And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.
Last week, we asked:
Why would it be a bad idea to mix the two colonies?
Congratulations to Nintendo 1306 Reshiram who correctly answered:
They would fight.
Congratulations Nintendo, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Why was I okay to handle this tarantula?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free ebook handbook
from our shop!
Hope you could subscribe to our channel as we upload every Wednesday and Saturday at
8AM EST.
Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video, to help
us keep making more.
It’s ant love forever!