Oh yeah, and one more thing.
I almost forgot, speaking of preservation of life, some of you might be wondering what
happened to a certain white aquadragon, our most recent addition to the Antiverse, who
was placed into the Golden Springs last week to help with eating dead ants.
If the Leviathans and Rasbora fish are living there now, where is the white aquadragon?
Well, last week I as well as many of you, felt our newcomer needed a bigger space to
live, one that was colder, and more interesting for the dragon.
Well, AC Family, in a parallel universe, an unexplored underworldly abyss, much more frigid,
inhabited by the likes of giant griffins, and waterworlds teaming with life, sprung
my newest grand creation.
AC Family, behold!
Welcome to Axolotland, into which someone special is about to move in!
Please susbcribe to my channel and hit the bell icon.
Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
In a flowing rush of bubbles and water, our white aquadragon floated to the sandy bottom
floor of Axolotland.
It stood still for a moment, realizing that it was no longer in the Golden Springs, that
perhaps the Golden Springs was more of a temporary holding cell.
What a peculiar world, he thought to himself.
It was rather colourful but cozy, and much bigger of a space than he was used to.
And then suddenly, the skies darkened, another flurry of bubbles and water.
Oh?
Thought he had seen a tail, but perhaps it was just his imagination... or not.
She, too, was quite bewildered by the new environment.
This aquadragon was larger with a differently shaped face.
Our first aquadragon was determined to just stay put.
He wasn't going to move an inch.
He was nervous and unsure what was going on.
Meanwhile, our female had decided to start snooping around towards the back.
She too had never experienced a land this large.
A rounded corner?
How peculiar!
She turned to approach her shy friend.
"Hey, buddy!" she called.
"Hey man, what do you think of this place?
Pretty weird huh?"
"Ummm... hello?
Are you alive?
It's a myth that we Axolotls are blind, you know?
I can totally see you respiring!"
She looked and prodded and tried to investigate what was going on with her seemingly frozen
friend.
But, he wouldn't budge, so she decided she was going to just move on and continue exploring
these new, vacant lands.
"Alright, get off me already" our male axolotl said.
He was determined to explore these strange lands on his own.
A little anti-social perhaps, but he's had a long 24 hrs.
Now if you look carefully at our female aquadragon, you may notice she has some injuries she's
recovering from.
Her last home at the pet shop was packed with many axolotls in unclean waters, so she could
be recovering from injuries from tank mates or previous unclean water from her last home.
I've chosen her in hopes to show her a better life with us in Axolotland.
And what an interesting world it was, AC Family.
Axolotland was a large 30 gallon cubical space for our aquadragons to fly through its echoey
spaces.
I've created Axolotland to be an enchanted mountain village, perfect habitat for a dragon.
Great java moss-covered wooden arches stretched from one end of the valley to the next.
These mosses would help with absorbing some toxic nitrogenous compounds produced from
the aquadragons' waste in between water changes every two days.
Another one of my favourite Axolotlandmarks, is this cute bubble feature, a bubble spring,
to help give these waters a bit of an oxygenating boost, and word has it aquadragons love playing
in them.
"This place isn't so bad, I guess."
"But it doesn't mean I have to make friends with anyone!"
He said as he stomped his way forward.
"You were saying?"
The two aquadragons came face to face.
What were they going to do?
Would they fight?
They inched their way closer.
In the end, the male turned around and backed away.
Though the two were not friends at first, I knew eventually our male would warm up to
his larger more outgoing companion.
And I was right.
As the days went on, they shared cave space.
They looked so cute together in the shadows.
Speaking of caves, Axolotland wouldn't be dragon habitat if it didn't have its share
of dragon's den-like caves and darkened retreats.
The aquadragons would peek their heads out of cave holes to let the "You didn't do your
research" army know, "Hey guys, I'm ok!"
Eventually it became clear that they were used to hanging out together, chilling at
a healthy distance from each other, aware of each other's presence, and doing their
thing, while taking periodic gulps of air at the surface.
In fact, I loved watching them ascend to the water's surface to take gulps of air.
They were just so cute!
I could literally watch them bobbing for air all night long!
I would catch them frolicking together around the bubble springs.
Seems the rumours are true.
But I think my favourite thing I catch them doing is seeing how they chillax on this moss-covered
driftwood.
Check her out, just chillin', suspended in her sweet spot.
In fact, the axolotls have amazing floating capabilities, which make it look like they
are floating downwards from the skies.
A few times, I will catch our aquadragons doing this, hanging out on the mosses like
they're the greatest beds around!
It's just adorable how relaxed and comfy she looks up there on her bed of moss.
This, AC Family, is apparently a moss bed fit for a dragon.
The axolotls will frequently hop from moss bed to moss bed, relaxing for a brief period.
Now axolotls usually get stressed under light, as they're naturally nocturnal creatures,
but they have been known to get used to some lights.
I feel our aquadragons here must have been raised under lights and don't mind the lights
we've chosen to illuminate Axolotland.
Such good aquadragons.
I wished I could give this one some scratches, as she watched the bubble spring.
You could really sense that these creatures were intelligent.
As you saw in our video two weeks ago, these guys love bloodworms, but I also love feeding
them earthworms!
Check it out, AC Family!
She smells it and sucks into her mouth.
Delicious!
The only problem with earthworms, I found, was that sometimes the earthworms would go
undetected by the axoltols and I would often have to retrieve the earthworms to try again
until they found them.
So, the breeder recommended I try feeding them a quality meat pellet that he used made
of shrimp, fish, and chicken components.
Let's put some in now for them.
They're a sinking pellet and float right to the bottom.
It was perfect timing because our aquadragons were hungry and foraging for food, leaving
no cave nor crevice unturned.
This one was certain she'd find some food in this cave.
She was going in!
I knew it was only a matter of time before the smell of these meat pellets would start
to float its way towards the axolotls.
And sure enough, it wasn't long before our aquadragons had picked up the scent of the
food.
She smells something.
She sticks her nose to the ground.
Axolotls hunt by scent, as well as through movement in the water picked up through lateral
line organs at the sides of their heads and trunk, but in this case the pellets are going
to have to be found primarily through smell.
She frequently takes mini vacuum sucks with her mouth when she thinks there's food in
front of her.
It's how they catch their prey.
And look who else has managed to catch a whiff of the meat pellets.
The male was inching closer, as well as the female.
Our male comes closer and...
Bam!
Success!
It looks like our female is having some issues.
She's sucking at nothing at the moment.
Axolotls allegedly have ok eye sight, but not the best eye-sight.
They rely greatly on their smell and movement perception.
Our female knows it's here somewhere.
She can sense it somewhere in this crevice!
When she's confident she's close, she sucks in a blast of water, and oh... missed!
It's now by her feet.
Our male smells a pellet quite near.
Will he manage to suck it up from this crevice?
Let's watch!
I swear, I am always on the edge of my seat watching these axolotls eating!
Strike!
Oh, didn't reach the pellet.
He tries again.
He just knows it's here!
And bang... did he get it?
Nope.
Still there.
He tried again and missed.
Finally, third time's a charm.
Success!
He spits out the sand that came with the catch, but inevitably he may swallow a few grains.
This sand is very fine however, and should pass through his system ok.
Some axolotl keepers keep their tanks bare in fear of sand impaction, while others swear
they've used fine sand for years without problems.
Now AC Family, what I saw next was the cutest thing ever.
Our male and female aquadragons came face to face, and like a cute couple in love, nuzzled
each other, without any squabble or annoyance.
These two were definitely besties now, as they searched for food together along the
floor of their kingdom.
I was happy that our axolotls had now become official friends.
I never saw any aggression between these two.
They would sometimes nudge each other out of each other's way, but there was never any
fight nor biting, which can happen when axolotls are put together in a space that is too confining.
Perhaps one day they may become more than friends.
Could you imagine if one day these two end up mating and we have baby axolotls?
I will keep an eye on the female and let you know if she starts showing signs of carrying
eggs.
I will monitor this pair of aquadragons of ours carefully, feed them well, keep them
cold, and offer them all the love I can.
I have noticed that their gills are starting to look better and better each day, feathering
out healthily, especially the female.
But just to give them an extra treat tonight, I added more meat pellets, on behalf of you
the AC Family, in hopes that one day we will see the start of an aquadragon family in this
grand kingdom known as Axolotland.
Let's hope for the best.
It's axolotlove forever!
Man, axolotl is so hard to say so many times!
Alright AC Family, what did you think?
Aren't these Axolotls the cutest amphibians you ever did see?
I'm doing my best to make sure these two live the best life they can, and will surely update
you on their progress.
So hit that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL icon now so you can keep updated on the happenings
of Antiverse and aquadragons of Axolotland, and hit the LIKE button every single time,
including now.
If you're new to the channel, and want to catch up on all your AntsCanada Lore, feel
free to binge watch this complete story line playlist here, which traces the origins of
all the ant colonies of the ant room, so you can follow their stories and better appreciate
how these ant kingdoms came to be, and why we love them so much!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would just like to watch
extended play footage of the Axolotls, and would like to help with naming these two creatures.
Looking forward to what the AC Inner Colony will choose for suitable names for our aquadragons.
And before we proceed to the AC Question of the Week, I'd like to plug my daily vlogging
channel, daily vlogs of my journey as a Youtuber with creatures like my baby African Grey parrot!
If you love birds and animals, I'd love for you to meet my new cute little bird!
Hope you can subscribe when you're there.
And now it's time for the AC Question of the Week!
Last week we asked:
What is the technical term for the tarantula's head section of its body?
Congratulations to CORTEZ CASTILLO who correctly answered:
The term is cephalathorax.
Congratulations, CORTEZ CASTILLO, you just won a free e-book handbook from our shop!
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
How do axolotls find food?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free e-book 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, and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video to help
us keep making more.
It's ant love forever!