This El Dragon paludarium setup was such a huge success.
It made me look over to our Black Dragons' neighbours, the Golden Empire in their Hacienda
Del Dorado.
Our Yellow Crazy Ants have been living in this terrarium for over a year.
Look at all of that chaos!
The Hacienda Del Dorado was in desperate need of a makeover!
We also had to find another way to deal with their exploding population, and I had just
the renovation to solve both those problems.
AC Family, behold.
Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the bell icon.
Welcome to the AC Family.
Enjoy!
So AC Family, what you will see in this video is truly the craziest ant setup I have ever
created in my life.
Today, we will be drastically transforming the Hacienda Del Dorado, our long time home
of our Yellow Crazy Ants, we call the Golden Empire, and man, I cannot wait to show you
what I have planned.
I intend for the new ant setup to incorporate some really cool elements of nature, some
careful design, and neat ant engineering!
Keep on watching until the end for the complete tour of the Golden Empire's new kingdom!
So there were two problems with the current territories of our Golden Empire that we covered
in previous videos.
First, having lived in this Hacienda Del Dorado terrarium for over a year, I felt the ants
were not being stimulated enough.
They were settling too into routine, devoid of any enrichment or life events.
There were no changes to their day to day activities to the point that they seemed almost
placid and expectant at feeding time.
The Hacienda Del Dorado became the same old territory dominated and overrun by the same
ficus vegetation, and the only place the ants could catch a break from these lands was at
Golden Rock, their custom Gold Play Button ant farm.
The Golden Empire clearly needed a territory makeover.
Second, this supercolony of eight queens has been continually growing over the past year
without a limiter to control their population.
We attempted using carnivorous pitcher plants last year to help curb the Golden Empire's
population growth, but that proved ineffective as the ants began forming a symbiotic relationship
with the plants by dumping their leftover insect parts into the plants to keep them
fed and their pitchers in non-trapping mode.
We attempted to introduce a praying mantis into the Hacienda Del Dorado as a natural
predator, and the mantis did prey on ants but, it wasn't enough to keep the Golden Empire's
numbers in check.
But today AC Family, the new territory renovation I had in mind would offer a solution to both
the Golden Empire's lack of enrichment and population control.
Check it out, AC Family.
Here sits a gorgeous paludarium piece, part land, part water, designed like a tropical
rocky pool fed by a natural spring.
I absolutely love this ornate terrascape of rocks and plants arching over this pool of
fresh water.
I love how various blooming mosses carpet the surface of the rocks.
The crystal waters bubbling from a spring at the top of the rock face is powered by
a mini water pump filter within the pool.
Attached to the rock grow some epiphytic and gorgeous bird's nest fern, along with a small
Arrow Arum plant growing from the marginal shallows at the east end of the pool.
I also added some driftwood limbs to help the colony safely travel around these wetlands.
The substrate of the aquatic portion is a pebbly gravel along with brown aquarium soil,
to mimic the floor of some natural spring pools I have seen in jungles in the past.
Overall, I could not wait to add this to the Hacienda Del Dorado, because aside from the
obvious aesthetic it would add to the ants' setup, its purpose was also functional.
I knew the Golden Empire would benefit from the enrichment offered by this new habitat
type which they would need to learn to navigate safely.
The Golden Empire has never had to deal with living around a large body of water before,
and although these yellow crazy ants are a tropical species and are fully capable of
learning to live around water, I am certain there will still be a learning curve as they
adapt to their new spring.
Also, with the new trickling water and pool, I knew the least nimble ants of the colony
would inevitably fall into the water and drown, which would definitely help curb Golden Empire's
numbers in a natural way.
So the time has come, to give the Hacienda Del Dorado, the greatest makeover and upgrade
in all of Golden Empire history!
The first step, was I needed to completely rework the lighting system.
My plan was to increase the living area vertically, so I needed to have the lighting elevated
from where it originally was.
So I built a structure to support the new lights.
Due to the higher elevation of the lighting, I also needed to install a higher quality
lighting system so that all underlying plants and mosses could receive the ample lighting
needed for photosynthesis.
With the new lighting rig setup, we now move down to the ground.
So AC Family, here was my plan.
I wanted to install the new rocky spring pool here, but I would first need to relocate this
huge piece of driftwood westward.
Now check this out, prior to installation of the pool, I needed to first install this
wooden stool.
Its function was to create an elevating plateau for the rocky spring pool.
This way, the ants would still have generally the same amount of ground surface area when
this new water feature is installed.
And now, AC Family, the biggest question was, how was I going to execute all of this with
the Golden Empire still inside the setup?
For sure the ants would go into complete hi-jinx as soon as my hands start moving things around.
Essentially, there was no plan.
I just had to cover my arms in baby powder and work as fast and effectively as I could.
So here we go, AC Family.
Let's do this!
Let's drastically transform the Hacienda Del Dorado to make it an even greater haven for
our Golden Empire!
With the help of my house keeper, we went in and began to rearrange the setup, working
as quickly but carefully as we could.
As soon as my arms were in the setup the ants were completely panicked and started to climb
my arms, but thankfully yellow crazy ants are a non-stinging species, so it just tickled
a bit.
I cut away at the ficus and moved the driftwood, then installed the stool.
Placing the rocky spring pool inside was super challenging, but after an hour and a half
of work and careful planning, check out how the new Hacienda Del Dorado looks now!
Behold, the new Hacienda Del Dorado is now a majestic, rain forest palace for our Golden
Empire.
Isn't it just incredible?
What do you guys think?
Alright, I can't wait to give you a tour of the setup.
It may seem a bit confusing at first glance, but check this out.
My intention for this new open concept setup was to make the entire living space seem borderless.
I wanted to obscure the boundaries of where the outside of the setup begins and where
the inside starts.
At initial glance, it seems like the Golden Empire has complete freedom to escape this
unconfined setup, but if you look carefully, you will see that with some neat design features,
the ants actually cannot escape.
First, all landmarks that the ants have access to, do not touch the areas which can lead
to escape.
I took advantage of the fact that these ants do not jump and made sure all decor was at
least 1 - 2 inches away from all edges.
One challenge however was the electrical cord of the pump powering the spring.
Incorporating it in such a way that wouldn't allow for escapes took some planning.
Now, the ants are able to climb the cord but are stopped at this point with this modified
slushie cover smothered in baby powder and rubbing alcohol.
Any ants that happen to slip off the cord and down onto this shelf, are still unable
to escape due to these baby powdered barriers on both ends created from modified takeout
container covers, also painted with baby powder and rubbing alcohol.
Stranded ants on this shelf end up wandering around, trying to figure out how to reunite
with the colony, until it finally decides to take a safe dive off.
Now AC Family, check out all these new awesome plant additions!
Some Spanish moss, slabs of tree bark, and some epiphytic bird's nest ferns hang decoratively
from the lighting rig, blurring the setup's boundaries, creating that incredible illusion
of a non-bordered territory.
Some of my favourite plants of the new Hacienda Del Dorado, however, are these beautiful bromeliads.
These plants are also epiphytic, meaning they don't need soil to grow.
Instead, these bromeliads are growing in small bags of coconut husk which I have attached
to their old driftwood piece.
The ants can also utilize these bags of coconut husk to create some cool tree houses for themselves,
offering more nesting space for our Golden Empire.
What I also love about these bromeliads is that after watering, water collects in these
wells between the leaves, creating small pools of water, offering the Golden Empire some
cool sites to drink.
These bromeliads would also function as drinking stations for the colony.
So cool right?
The largest plant in the setup was this gorgeous red anthurium, which the ants loved to climb.
It quickly became a popular ant trail pathway.
Now, let's take a look at the new Hacienda Del Dorado floor, which I am obsessed with!
I felt this new look of the ground floor was better than before, because it more closely
resembled the multi-faceted surface of a real rain forest floor.
I loved how the branches and plant life above created some beautiful and more natural lighting
effects throughout the floor space of this setup.
The ants had their bright spots and their dark spots to frequent.
Now looking to the right, it may seem a bit strange at first glance to see this floating
spring pool in the middle of all this natural landscape.
Well, as mentioned, I didn't want the new water feature to decrease the surface area
of the Hacienda Del Dorado, so the fact that this water feature was hovering was a good
thing, and it actually created an awesome massive dark and humid cave which the Golden
Empire was already using for nesting space!
I also wanted the spring pool to hover so that I could better film beneath the water's
surface, so this current arrangement allows us to still have a God's-eye view into the
Hacienda Del Dorado's aquatic world.
Speaking of which, I forgot to mention that currently inside these waters live a population
of aquatic snails which help keep the waters clean.
Now AC Family, let's finally have a look at how the ants are dealing with this new rocky
spring pool.
Watching the ants exploring their new spring pool was just awesome!
The mosses helped the ants come in close contact with the water which bubbled from the top
spring.
They explored every corner of their new wetland inquisitively and began to map out the new
territories.
It was absolutely breath-taking to watch the ants enjoy their new spring pool.
By the way AC Family, I think this floating spring pool needs a name.
What should we call it?
Leave your name suggestions in the comments section and I will choose my top 5 favourites
for the AC Family to vote on in a future video.
Feel free to also leave your name suggestions for the bromeliad nesting-drinking stations
and the Golden Empire's new cave.
Overall, this newly transformed Hacienda Del Dorado paludarium was not only more beautiful
than before, but it was also functionally a better more natural habitat for the ants,
as well as offered a greater living space for their massive population.
And now speaking of massive population, one of the things I wanted to check was how many
ants were falling into the water and drowning.
Was this new spring pool going to prove effective at helping curb our ant population?
Well, turns out, it wasn't long before I began to spot ants that had sadly slipped into the
pool water and drowned.
Their dead bodies floated on the water's surface and even got caught up in the filter's intake.
Now, having decaying ant bodies in the spring water could offer some valuable nutrients
for our mosses which help filter out some of the organic matter from the water as it
trickles down these moss-carpeted rocks, but having too many ant bodies decaying in the
water could also foul up the spring pool pretty quickly.
And so AC Family, I think you know what's next.
Our next step was to introduce a great aquatic creature into these waters, to feed on these
fallen ants, swallowed by the pool, and AC Family, I know you will absolutely love the
creature I've chosen for the job!
Oh man, AC Family!
What do you guys think?
Do you like the new Hacienda Del Dorado?
Now, guys trust me on this: you won't want to miss what creature I add to these waters
to prey on the fallen ants!
I am so excited to show you, for it's a pretty epic addition to the Hacienda Del Dorado,
so hit that subscribe button and bell icon, and hit the like button every time, including
now!
AC Inner Colony, a special treat this week.
I have left a hidden cookie for you here, for a special clue as to what our new aquatic
creature is that will be added to our spring pool.
Perhaps you can figure it out before everyone else!
Good luck!
Before continuing to the AC Question of the Week, I wanted to plug my new daily vlogging
channel, featuring my daily vlogs for those wondering what I work on between these weekly
ant videos!
And now it's time for the AC Question of the Week!
Last week we asked:
List any of the ant scientific discoveries we made in this video.
Congratulations to Top 10 Videos who correctly answered:
"The 5th stage of larva is the one used to spin silk.﻿"
Congratulations Top 10 Videos, you just won a free e-book handbook from our shop.
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
List any of the reasons why this new Hacienda Del Droado makes a better
home for our Golden Empire?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free ebook handbook
from our shop!
Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST.
Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, & SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video to help us keep
making more.
It's ant love forever!