El Dragon Island was well on the way to blossoming into an awesome community....
Until I saw it.
Something crawling on the glass that filled me with great concern.
Oh no!
Wild pharaoh ant scouts were checking out this new island of ours.
It didn't seem they could get across, just yet.
AC Family, this is not good.
We can't have what happened to the Titans and our Jawbreakers, happen to our new Polyrhachis
ants.
It was only a matter of time before these scouts will go back to their main colony and
let them know of our lush island.
The time has come, AC Family, for the release of some special guardians.
We needed to add a colony of beasts into the waters of El Dragon to protect our island
inhabitants... and I knew the perfect creatures for the job.
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It was clear that El Dragon was in the initial stages of a mass invasion by these notorious
wild ants known as pharaoh ants, ants we've been grappling with for months now.
They still haven't moved out of my ant room, and of course they would find our ant island
here alluring, for on it, they could inhabit its rich virgin soils, receive a constant
supply of insects and honey, and all the water and humidity they needed, not to mention a
stout fledgling Polyrhachis colony with brood to nourish them for at least a week or two.
El Dragon needed some guardian beasts to intercept the Pharaoh ants' plans of invasion and protect
our Polyrhachis colony.
AC Family, I will take you through the official release of these beasts into El Dragon, but
trust me, you will want to keep on watching until the end for the crazy and unexpected
event.
As for our Polyrhachis colony, they're clearly oblivious to the amount of danger their in.
They just seem completely happy to be moved into their new home in this leaf pocket on
El Dragon.
Speaking of which, the time has come AC Family to give these new Polyrhachis ants an official
name.
Please take a moment to vote here for your favourite name, from my Top 5 favourite suggestion
from the comments of last week's video.
Thank you for your input, AC Council.
This beginning acclimation period for an ant colony is often the most exciting and challenging
stage for any ant keeper because in these first few weeks we get to learn via trial
and error what the ants want and don't want.
I have found that one can read all the ant keeping manuals in the world, but in reality,
every ant colony is different and has its own personality.
These Polyrhachis ants, I find are inquisitive, but at times quite cheeky!
I saw this worker wandering so I attempted to figure out what it was looking for.
I wanted nothing more than to give it whatever it needed in order to help the colony succeed.
I tried offering it a fresh piece of superworm, and...
OK rejected and it assumed a threat pose.
Alright Polyrhachis ant, perhaps some honey might tickle your fancy?
Success.
She began licking the drop, and... oh?
I guess sugar wasn't what she was looking for either.
There was something else on her mind.
What could she be looking for?
I suddenly found her seemingly trying pick at something from the driftwood, and as I
looked closer, I realized what she might be looking for!
She wasn't looking for food.
She needed building supplies!
As you may have seen in our video a couple weeks ago, these ants build homes in leaves
using the silk spun by their larvae.
They glue leaf ends and debris together to create their cozy nests.
I tried offering the worker a piece of sphagnum moss and tiny bit of cotton.
Bingo!
She instantly took to it.
She picked up the sphagnum moss bit but I guess that piece didn't meet her standards.
She inspected my offering a bit more.
It was amazing being able to interact with her like this.
Would she approve of my package of building materials?
And no.
And here she is assuming a threat pose again warning me to not come near her.
Alright, I get the message.
So instead of choosing for the ants, I figured I would give the ants the opportunity to choose
their building material at their own discretion.
I tore up more sphagnum moss and cotton bits and placed them into a small container, which
I placed onto El Dragon Island.
And as planned, in a few short hours, the workers were rummaging through our container,
picking ideal pieces to bring back for nest building.
It was awesome to see them at work!
What an amazing and unique behaviour to witness in ants, right AC Family?
It was like watching birds building a nest, seeking out and gathering nesting medium!
And wow!
Check out their nest progress!
It seems like they've got a plan and they're already looking pretty cozy and insulated
in there!
In the mean time, back to grave matters!
We needed to unleash guardians into these waters, just in case the Pharaoh ants decided
to pull stunts and attempt to get across this river somehow.
By the way, this River also needs a name.
Please take another moment to vote among these Top 5 name suggestions here, so we can give
this River an official name.
So now AC Family, let's go over our shortlist of candidates to be the protective water beast
of El Dragon:
Turtles Archerfish
Crayfish frogs
salamanders house geckos
newts beta fighting fish
white cloud minnows mosquito rasboras
Many of these were popular suggestions from last week's video.
Now to narrow the list down I had to pass each species candidate through three specific
criteria:
1) Ideal Habitat Match 2) A Taste For Pharaoh Ants but not Polyrhachis
ants 3) Compatibility with Shrimp
So let's go over our first criteria: Ideal Habitat Match.
Which of these species could realistically and comfortably live in this El Dragon paludarium?
Right off the bat, turtles would be eliminated because there is simply not enough space.
Perhaps a baby turtle might be able to live in here but it wouldn't be long before it
outgrew it, and not to mention a turtle would totally wreck this setup, and God forbid it
bend a branch or plant enough to touch a wall and form a bridge for the pharaoh ants to
cross or our Polyrhachis ants to escape.
This also eliminates one of the top suggestions last week: Archerfish.
The water of El Dragon is only about 8 gallons in volume and super shallow which is insufficient
space for an archerfish.
Plus, it would also try eating our Polyrhachis.
Fiddler Crabs sadly also don't make the cut because they live in brackish water so they
require a bit of salt in the water, and well, this river is fully fresh.
Our Second criteria: A Taste for Pharaoh Ants but not Polyrhachis.
We don't want our water beasts to be picking off our Polyrhachis islanders.
This eliminates a lot of our candidates!
Frogs, salamanders, and crayfish would eat both pharaoh ants and polyrhachis ants that
fall in or get close to the water.
A house gecko, though it would make a cool gargoyle hunting pharoah ants crawling on
the glass walls, would also relish any Polyrhachis ant.
It leaves us with 4 more candidates: newts, bettas fighting fish, white cloud minnows,
and mosquito rasboras.
So our final criteria was "compatibility with shrimp".
We didn't want our water beasts to be feeding on our shrimp colony, which by the way, also
need a name.
AC Council vote here!
And get this: surprisingly the shrimps have already begun breeding!
So cool!
See this baby here?
That shrimplet is super cute, so we can't have it become food for our new river additions!
Let's see who passes the test.
Newts sadly don't make this cut seeing as they relish aquatic crustaceans like shrimp!
Betta fighting fish, though gorgeous fish and a very popular suggestion in the comments
of last week, also don't make this cut because the bettas are large enough to eat the shrimplets
and semi-adult shrimp.
Two more candidates left: White Cloud Minnows and Mosquito Rasboras, both very small fish
that swim in schools.
Turns out White Cloud Minnows which grow up to 2 inches, are twice as large as mosquito
rasboras which grow no larger than 1 inch long, so not only does that mean White Cloud
Minnows can actually feed on the tiniest shrimplets, but also that I couldn't keep as many White
Cloud Minnows in our river, so...
It was official, AC Family!
Our new water beasts were going to be a school of mosquito rasboras!
Mosquito Rasboras, known scientifically as Boraras brigittae are found in dimply lit,
slow moving, quiet streams and ponds in the forest peat swamps of West Borneo.
This was perfect because the rivers of El Dragon Island offered a lot of shady areas,
mossy areas, calm areas, and a stream.
They also loved eating living mosquito larvae which in my books was a plus!
In this size of paludarium, I could comfortably house an impressive school of ten mosquito
rasboras, which was awesome!
I couldn't wait to do it!
But before I could add our Mosquito Rasbora fish into this river, there was something
I needed to do first.
The waters were not prepared to house a school of fish just yet.
We first needed to move in a special preparatory team!
Remember last week how I said that it was essential that our river was biologically
established with enough beneficial bacteria to properly sustain life?
Well, right now the bacterial colonies are still building up and are doing ok at keeping
our shrimp healthy, but I fear there may not be enough beneficial bacteria to sustain a
school of fish.
Let me explain.
So without getting too in depth with the biochemistry of it all, basically, all animals excrete
waste in the water right?
Excrement, urine, etc.
This waste releases ammonia into the water which is toxic to fish and aquatic creatures.
Now here's where the bacteria work comes in.
AC Family get this: a group of bacteria covert the ammonia to nitrite which is even more
toxic than ammonia, but another team of bacteria consume this nitrite and convert it to nitrate,
which is a lot safer to fish than ammonia and nitrite.
Periodic partial water changes help remove the build up of this nitrite before it gets
to dangerous levels.
So, we needed to make sure we had enough of this beneficial bacteria to neutralize the
amount of waste produced by a school of ten mosquito rasoboras, otherwise adding the fish
would poison El Dragon's waters and kill all its inhabitants.
So, to gather this dream team of bacteria, I had to dig into my larger tank's filtration
system and borrow some of the medium.
Beneficial bacteria live mostly in the substrate, on decor, and in the filter of aquariums.
The sands and plants I used for El Dragon's rivers were all transplanted from my larger
biologically established tank, so I knew I had a lot of beneficial bacteria in El Dragon
waters already but I wanted to add more just to be on the safe side.
So here before us is El Dragon's filter, a simple submersible filter with canisters holding
the medium to house the bacteria.
So here I had our canister with propagated filter medium from my larger tank just packed
with all that awesome bacteria, and in the other canister, I wanted to add this cool
stuff called Biosphere, containing rock biological media for filters with bacteria already added
to it.
I popped a few of these babies inside, and voila!
One final thing I had to do was wrap this entire thing in more media just to make sure
any shrimplets don't get sucked in, now that the shrimps are breeding.
And now we were ready to reinstall our filter, a new planet of beneficial bacteria just waiting
to eat up and neutralize our fish waste!
I placed the filter in, and in a thick gross brown cloud, the gunk from inside our filter
blew all around the rivers of El Dragon.
Though our water now looked polluted and dirty, don't be fooled.
This is good dirt!
Our populations of bacteria were now being transported by the currents to all areas of
our river.
The gunk covered the sandy floors, embedded themselves into the rock crevices, attached
to plants, and nourished our moss.
The shrimp were having a field day at all this gunky goodness, picking away and eating
anything it found tasty.
The rivers of El Dragon were now seeded with this life-sustaining team of beneficial microbiota,
which would be the biological welcoming party to our new water beasts.
The next day, the waters were super clear, The bacteria were now settled, and we were
ready to add our fish.
But suddenly a movement in the water caught my eye.
Is that what I thought it was?
Oh no!
Pharaoh ants in the water!
I tried to fish one out and indeed, it was a living pharaoh ant!
It was confirmed.
The pharaoh ant workers were now attempting to swim across!
This was bad.
We needed to release our guardians now!
AC Family, behold our great water beasts!
Ok, so they were small, very small!
But to pharaoh ants they were huge sharks!
Look at them!
I couldn't wait to add them in!
Let's do this, AC Family!
I poured the fish in, and as I stepped back to watch them explore their new home, it was
as if suddenly time stood still.
Watching them was actually quite beautiful.
At first the fish were a bit scattered and disoriented.
They were suddenly in a strange place they'd never seen before.
But it wasn't long before they all found each other and their instincts kicked right in,
and they began to school.
In a group together they began to explore El Dragon's river waters, at first they got
a feel for the fast currents, and then eventually made their way towards the peaceful gully,
and checked things out around the corner where our mosses were.
I was suddenly a bit worried about how they'd get along with our shrimp, but no, the shrimp
and the fish seemed to acknowledge each other's presence but not bother each other.
This was just amazing, AC Family.
Over the next few hours, I watched as the fish began to gradually come into their own
and navigate El Dragon's waters much more confidently.
They played in the waters, riding the exhilarating river currents, then moving to slower waters,
only to decide they wanted to swim in fast waters again.
Back and forth, the fish swam happily and started to pick at the little specs of stuff
the currents carried downstream.
It was amazing to watch our mosquito rasbora school acting as they would in the wild.
But now the question was, would these fish be efficient at eating pharaoh ants trying
to swim across?
Only time would tell, and I promised myself I would keep my eye open to film the moment
if I was ever lucky enough to catch it, but based on the condition of the water surface
just 1 day after adding the fish, it seemed our mosquito rasboras were super thorough
at feeding on whatever came floating on the surface of the water.
Look at how clear!
Alright, let's give our new school of Mosquito Rasboras a name, shall we?
Leave your name suggestions in the comments and I will choose my top 5 picks for us to
vote on in a future video.
AC Family, as I watched our new water beasts, now a bit more colourful, play and feed, I
felt assured that our pharaoh ant invaders no longer stood a chance at setting foot on
El Dragon.
Our Polyrhachis ants could rely on these fish to keep them safe.
I went to check the Polyrhachis nest progress...
Oh no!
AC Family, looking into the nest now, it was completely empty!
The Polyrhachis ants are all gone!
What happened?
And shortly after their disappearance, something absolutely mind-boggling happened that left
me speechless.
What is this?
Oh boy, AC Family!
So many questions, and trust me, you won't want to miss the answers in next week's episode,
so be sure to hit that SUBSCRIBE button now so you can keep following this epic ant story,
and also don't forget to hit LIKE every single time, including now.
By the way AC Family, in case you were wondering about when I will update on the other ant
colonies on this channel, rest assured I will be featuring them soon.
I generally try to share these epic ant stories in trilogies before moving on to the next
ant colony, and indeed some exciting news is coming up!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here if you would like to watch some
really awesome and special footage of our Polyrhachis ants nest building, and just a
hint, there's something else there that you might find cool!
Also, I would like to quickly plug my daily vlogging channel, that's vlogs uploaded every
single day, in case you may be wondering what I do in between these weekly ant videos.
Thank you to all AC Family who have already subscribed!
Alright and now it's time for the AC Question of the Week!
Last week we asked:
What did we observe in the Polyrhachis ants
that was previously largely unknown to biologists?
Congratulations to Omega Rex who correctly answered:
Feeding Ecology
Congratulations Omega Rex, you just won a free ebook handbook from our shop!
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
How do beneficial bacteria help keep fish alive in
an aquarium?
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.
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making more.
It's ant love forever!