Six months ago, I set out to try something that’s never been done before.
In collaboration with all the subscribers of this channel, voting over a course of several
weeks on design choices and the details, we created the ultimate ant terrarium: The Floating
Mountains Paludarium, inspired by the movie Avatar.
We called it the Ember Islands, and it was designed to house our new and growing colony
of fire ants, named the Phoenix Empire, whom we raised and watched grow together from just
a single queen ant with eggs in a test tube in January of last year.
But now over one year later, and half a year since the fire ants, along with their royal
queen, the Ember Empress moved into the Ember Islands, I’m sure a lot of you have been
wondering what happened to the Phoenix Empire, are they still alive, how much have they grown,
and what do the Ember Islands look like today?
And so AC Family, this episode will be a full update on our Phoenix Empire, the fire ant
colony we love on this channel, as we revisit our great Ember Islands, the land we created
for the Phoenix Empire, here on the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
Please SUBSCRIBE to the channel and hit the BELL icon.
Welcome to the AC Family.
Enjoy!
Guys, I have an ultimate decision to make regarding the fire ants we call the Phoenix
Empire that I want all of you to be involved with, so stay tuned until the end for that.
I think you’ll love what I have planned coming up.
So six months ago, you may remember the Ember Islands looking like this.
Lots of bare rock, a few small rockweed plants scattered here and there, and fire ants living
within the mountains and in the dumped soils below them.
But AC Family, I think you’ll be very surprised to see what the Ember Islands looks like today.
Behold, the current Ember Islands in 2021.
Isn’t it crazy?
Look at all those plants!
Let me show you around.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the once bare and lifeless rocky surface of the Ember Islands
has exploded with life.
I did not plant these huge plants here which means the rocks incorporated into the setup
must have already had seeds or spores embedded within them, or they were in the soils stuffed
into the mountains and spread via the ants’ various activities.
Have a look at the plants at ground level.
Towering ferns extended their curling tendrils and leaves up into the skies.
There were even some points where the ferns were touching the top of the tank.
I’d better snip those back lest our fire ants start planning an escape.
Don’t worry, we’ll be seeing the ants in a bit.
Within this mix of plants are also tonnes of flourishing rockweed, and carpets of rolling
mosses of different species.
Again, in terms of the moss I didn’t plant these here, and most of this rockweed sprouted
from seeds dispersed by the first tiny rockweed plants I planted six months ago at the start.
Both rockweed and moss just grew and spread naturally, which is awesome!
When conditions are right, both mosses and rockweed will truly thrive, as they have here
in the Ember Islands.
Some rockweed and moss have even already begun to grow on the mountains.
Isn’t that something?
Now in terms of the mountains, which were made to be hollow and filled with soil in
order for the fire ants to nest inside them, I regret to inform you that the fire ants
have totally evacuated them.
They no longer use the mountains as nesting space, and you’ll see why that is in a bit.
Instead, they use them as garbage sites.
Check out all these cockroach exoskeletons the fire ants have discarded and allowed to
decay.
Guess you can lead fire ants to soil, but you can’t make them dig!
And now it’s time to take a look at the Phoenix Empire, and for that we’ll need
to go to ground level.
It’s currently foggy but that’s about to dissipate soon, in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
The daily rain storm rolls through, hydrating the lands, providing water for the plants
and inhabitants of the Ember Islands.
Once the storm ended, and the fog gone, we could now see how the Phoenix Empire has been
doing.
Here they are!
Here is another huge garbage pile the fire ants have established.
They’ve set up various garbage stations around the lands, which have actually been
great at fertilizing the plants, which is probably why the plants have grown so big
and healthy.
Additionally, small soil creatures like springtails come along, eat up the edible bits leftover
by the ants, then their poop goes on to nourish the plants, as well.
A whole biological system has established itself in the Ember Islands six months into
its development, and I was pleased to see this.
As for the ants themselves, it may not seem like it, but activity is indeed still booming.
Highways of ants move to and from different areas of the territories, some hunting for
food, others moving brood to new locations, and others cleaning up.
All the towering plants makes it easier for the ants to go about their daily activities
more discreetly and under cover.
In terms of how big the colony is now, and where they are nesting if they aren’t in
the mountains, I don’t exactly know.
I do still see a pile of soil beneath Mt. Vulcan where their mothernest used to be.
I’m assuming the colony is still very large but I believe they’ve found and possibly
even excavated large caverns into the rockshelf that makes up their territories, or found
an opening to the piping that makes up the skeleton of this terrarium build, and are
nesting comfortably within out of our sight.
There’s no way for me to tell how large the Phoenix Empire is at the moment, unless
of course I tear apart the setup perhaps, but I do see them coming in and out of various
very-well hidden openings in the rock, like here, and here.
But let’s coax them out of hiding, shall we?
It’s feeding time, and I placed in a freshly cut up roach for them to feed on.
Immediately the ants came out of hiding to enjoy the feast.
Fire ants gathered around the roach to have a taste and begin the process of feeding.
A glob of roach guts kinda fell off to the side there, and the ants were quick to start
consuming the gooey nutritious roach guts.
Of course, as we know, the first step the ants do is to bury the roach.
This burying of newly found food is an important step in the fire ant consumption process as
it helps conceal their newfound prey from interlopers who may want to steal the roach
from them, and it also helps suck up some of the stickiness from the freshly cut up
roach.
You see, roach blood contains a very sticky coagulant that can get fire ants lethally
struck if they aren’t careful, but piling a bunch of debris and soil onto the chopped
up roach helps minimize that sticky danger.
A few minutes later, the fire ants had completely buried the blob of roach guts, as well as
the sticky parts of the roach’s body, and were already beginning to consume the roach
by sucking up the semi-solid goodies from within the roach’s carcass.
The fire ants fill up their social stomachs and carry the pre-digested roach meat back
to the rest of the colony to transfer to the other members mouth-to-mouth via a process
called trophallaxis.
This roach will eventually bring nourishment to the queen, larvae, and other adult ant
members of the colony for the entire day.
Which now brings me to where I need all of your help regarding a decision I have to make
for these ants.
Ready for this, AC Family?
So the Phoenix Empire celebrated their 1st birthday last month.
Can you believe it’s been over a year already?
Where has time gone?
So, I’ve been wanting to give them something special for their birthday as a gift, and
I wanted to ask all of you if you had any ideas.
In the past, I’ve given my first late fire ant colony the Fire Nation small cakes, a
dead hamster, a dead mouse, my hand, a roach christmas tree, a dead tarantula, dead fish,
dead monitor lizard, a chicken head, and a turkey head.
So far, these fire ants have only known roaches, sweet jelly, and the odd superworm.
But I’ve been wanting to try giving them a special treat because they’re definitely
a special colony to us.
Let me know your suggestions in the comments, and I’ll go over them with your AC Senate,
and choose my top 5 favourites for us to vote on in a future video.
Based on past rather traumatic experiences, though, I suggest nothing huge because I don’t
want to stink up the entire floor of my building, and I hate maggots, but something small and
sizable, that the Phoenix Empire could preferably consume entirely within three days, I’m
sure would be greatly appreciated by the ants for their birthday.
And while we’re at it, we’re also quickly approaching 4 Million subs!
Ahhhhh!
I can’t believe we’re reaching that hallmark already!
That is crazy, AC Family!
So, I wanted to also ask you guys for ideas we could do for our big 4 million subscribers
episode, just so I can start mulling over what we’ll do video-wise to celebrate such
a milestone.
I never imagined there would be so many people out there loving ants, as much as you guys
do.
When I started this ant channel 12 yrs ago, I never dreamed it would ever see a community
as awesome, as caring, as smart, as funny, as engaged, and most of all as ant-loving
as all of you guys.
Every time a new viewer hits the subscribe button and joins our ever expanding AC Family,
every time you guys participate in the voting polls, or suggest names or help me make important
choices for the ants, I feel the blazing flames of ant love grow a little bit bigger and bigger,
and the warmth fills my heart with so much joy.
Thank you guys for giving ants a chance, and for making what are usually invisible life
forms that the world hates and wants to exterminate, very visible and very beloved.
Thank you so much for watching and supporting the ants.
It’s ant love forever!
AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode?
So much is ahead for our ants of the Ant Room, and future ants, as soon as we move into the
new Ant House this year!
In fact, they’ve already completed the second floor and are now working on the roof deck,
so if you haven’t yet do SMASH that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON now, and hit ALL so you
get notified at every upload.
Also don’t forget to hit the LIKE button every single time including now.
It would really mean a lot to me, guys.
Thank you!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would like to watch random
scenes of the Phoenix Empire in the Ember Islands.
Go check it out!
And guys, be sure to visit AntsCanada.com for all your ant keeping and collecting gear
shipped to you in a special package from our ant-loving facility in the USA, so you can
get the most out of your ant keeping experience.
We ship worldwide and also offer full email support if you need our help!
We also have a helpful forum and ant colony trading marketplace on the site.
Visit AntsCanada.com today.
And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.
Last week, we asked:
Name one nutrient found in cow dung?
Congratulations to ahappyandjoyfulbeing who answered:
Nitrogen
Congratulations ahppyandjoyfulbeing, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook from
our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Name one of the plants growing in the Ember Islands?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free Ultimate Ant
Keeping Handbook from our shop!
Hope you could 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!