In this Ant Room, which we call the Antiverse, we've watched the evolution and growth of
many ant colonies whom we've come to love.
We've seen new ant colonies be born, even ant colonies showing up uninvited, and have
said good bye to ant colonies whose journeys sadly came to an end.
But with these epic and ever changing ant life stories, we've also come to befriend
the many creatures, great and small, who have become part of the lives of our ants.
Many of such beasts are actual residents of the ant kingdoms.
So today's story takes us to a special place in our Antiverse, a great kingdom known as
the Hacienda Del Dorado, belonging to our yellow crazy ants called the Golden Empire,
where a majestic aquatic Empress lays silently below the waters of the ants' spring pool.
For all the time we've known her, she's lived here in solitude, feasting on dead ants and
garbage dumped into these waters, running this entire aquatic palace by herself.
But today, AC Family, she will be forced to meet an unexpected guest who will surely cause
a stir!
And so begins today's story!
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Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
AC Family, a great introduction is brewing in this episode that is sure to shock you.
Today we're going to setup an incredible meeting of beasts, but man, I totally did not expect
what ended up happening and it will surely also shock you!
But before we get to this grand event encounter, let's catch up on how the residents of the
Hacienda Del Dorado have been doing.
This week, a surprising batch of mushrooms have begun to spring up in the territories,
like soft, pillowey umbrellas next to the Golden Empire's feeding dish.
And oh, as you can see, the Springtails whom you guys have called "The Springcleaners"
are still very active at picking up the scraps of the Golden Empire's feeding areas.
As for the Golden Empire, as usual, they're ever healthy and strong, but funny enough,
it seems the colony has reached a sort of population equilibrium.
Their numbers don't seem uncontrollably explosive, like before.
Perhaps our Spring Pool installation has been effective!
If you're new here, we installed this beautiful spring pool into the Hacienda Del Dorado for
the purpose of providing a source of water to the colony, and more importantly, to act
as a natural agent of population control, i.e. we needed the waters to naturally cull
the population down via ant drowning, but to deal with all the ant bodies lethally swept
up by the cascading waterfall or trapped in the pool, we also needed to recruit a water
beast, to take care of all these dead ants, because without some kind of creature to feed
on the ant carcasses, the water would have fouled up very fast, and foul water, means
a poisoned water supply for the ant colony.
So we moved in a gorgeous, blue crayfish, which by the way, as you might have seen in
our previous video, I was told was an Electric Blue Crayfish species, called Procambarus
alleni from Florida, but I was surprised to find out, thanks to one of you guys, that
she is actually a tropical blue crayfish from Australia known as Cherax quadricarinatus.
Minor ID change, and thank you for the proper identification.
Whatever the case, AC Family, I am pleased to share that this graceful Blue Empress has
been a total delight to keep over the past couple of months, completely peaceful, picking
off any and all ant carcasses within the waters, cleaning up debris and ant garbage, and doing
her job at keeping the waters clean.
In fact, she's been doing an unbelievable job at keeping these waters clean!
Check it out!
Those waters have never been more crystal clear, no debris floating on the surface,
no ants trapped in the filter mesh, no rotting material in sight.
And now, AC Family, another thing you may be surprised to know is that our young Blue
Empress has changed.
Yes, she's grown bigger now, and also, wears new armour of a different colour!
She's probably having a snooze in her shadowy cave, so we can't see her right now.
But let's add a few fish pellets to the pool, to coax her out into the light.
With her OC levels in cleanliness, she's sure to come out to say hello.
And voila!
Behold our Blue Empress.
Check her out!
Isn't she beautiful?
She's no longer just blue now, but has now taken on a gorgeous mix of blue and peach.
I'm not sure if this colour change is a result of eating so many of our golden orange yellow
crazy ants, or if this is just a result of her maturity process, but I love how she looks
now.
So, AC Family, now that we're here, let's finally give her an official name.
Please take a moment to vote here, on your favourite of these name suggestions from you
the AC Family.
Thank you, AC Council for your input.
I have come to discover over time, that our blue peach Kraken here, doesn't just eat ants!
She is actually a big fan of veggies and plant trimmings.
I love giving it to her myself.
Watch as I offer her this leaf.
As soon as she accepts my gift, I respect her desire for space and I'm quickly out of
there to allow her to eat in peace.
At this point her and I have a mutual understanding of respect and she now waits for me every
time she senses me close by.
She's my girl!
So in the last video featuring this crayfish, many of you felt concerned that perhaps she
was alone and that she should at least have a partner to live with in these waters.
Now, up until then, it never occurred to me that she might feel lonely.
These crayfish, in the wild, are solitary and greatly territorial.
They do not live in colonies like our ants do, nor in collective schools like our fish.
It is said that they establish a territory and defend their space at all costs.
But then I figured, these alleged loners must come together to mate at some point right?
There must be a point when the drive to breed takes over and male and female crayfish come
together to allow for the passing on of genes and continuation of their species.
So, AC Family, I felt today was the day, I would try my luck, and find a suitor for our
beautiful Empress.
Can you imagine if she ended up finding a mate and breeding?
I don't even know how crustaceans mate.
I felt it was the perfect opportunity to witness some critical biology so I was set to make
this grand introduction happen.
I waited for the perfect night.
Last night, as I watched the Hacienda Del Dorado, I marveled at the most beautiful sunset
which framed the kingdom as if it were a painting.
I felt this was Mother Nature's way of signifying that tonight was the night!
AC Family, this was it!
When darkness befell the Antiverse, and the black of night cloaked all ant kingdoms, I
setup some moon lighting to hopefully get our Empress in the mood for some loving.
The trickling sounds of the waterfall and the nocturnal ambiance of insects provided
a romantic chorus setting up the stage for this grand meeting of royals.
And speaking of which, let's meet our dashing suitor now.
Behold!
Here sits our glistening male prince, in shining platinum armour.
With an exoskeleton white like ivory, and long thin claws, this crayfish will hopefully
have the chops to impress our blue Empress.
His black beady eyes and long fuzzy antennae would be sharp at sensing and locating where
our empress may be hiding within the recesses of her cave.
This male crayfish has been residing in his own tank for the past few weeks, but I was
hoping he was in the mood to mate.
Based on my research, these crayfish have a breeding season, which begins as soon as
the waters start to warm up.
Here in Manila, where I currently live, it is officially our summer time, which means
all territories in the Ant Room and resident waters within are naturally heating up.
So my hopes is that both this male and our female crayfish are in mating season mode.
This male, by the way, came to me with both claws somehow broken off!
The poor guy, but thankfully, after two sheds, his claws were fully replaced.
Regeneration in these crayfish is truly amazing!
But, I was hoping there would be no such injury resulting from tonight's introduction.
I was so nervous, and was prepared to have to separate them at any time, if things didn't
go as planned.
Again, I had no idea how crustacean breeding worked so I was going to really have to improvise
all this a long the way.
Please God, let there be no pinching off of limbs.
So AC Family, all was set, here goes nothing!
It's time to release our platinum prince into the aquatic palace of our beloved empress.
I took the male, and gently dropped him in.
He instantly backs up into our Empress's cave.
No!
Don't do that!
I held my breath!
Bang!
He shot out of there like a bullet!
She must have given him quite the shock welcome.
Clearly startled he regathers his composure and sort of sits there in a daze.
I felt as though at this point he was realizing that he had come in contact with someone beautiful
inside that cave.
If crayfish release pheromones into the water, I was positive our Prince here was reacting
to our Empress' love potion.
In a trance, he once again but this time more cautiously, approaches the back cave, but
suddenly out of the shadows rears the powerful claws of our Empress.
They lock and begin to spar!
In a sudden cloud explosion, our Platinum Prince retreats.
This was not a friendly greeting from our Empress.
The rough play had now stirred up a blinding cloud of debris.
My heart was racing!
But I didn't want to assume just yet that this was a claw snap away from a bloody meeting.
Could this be part of the crayfish courtship ritual?
I wasn't sure but my heart beat loudly in my chest as I filmed the rest of this great
meeting of royals.
All I could see of our Empress was her antennae waving from within the darkness of the pool.
Our platinum prince decided to retreat to a quiet corner of the pool in order to recollect,
but bang!
Out of nowhere, the Empress came shooting out from a hidden opening from her cave!
Our empress knew every inch of these waters inside and out!
If our Platinum Prince was going to successfully find a moment to win her heart, he would need
to do it tactfully.
I looked back at where the Empress had surprised ambushed the male and she had disappeared.
I caught her patrolling around in the shadows, seemingly looking for her unscheduled guest.
It was crazy to see her like this!
Could this be her weird crayfish way of showing she's interested?
The prince sat there not moving.
The ants could definitely feel from the surface disturbance that something intense was happening
below the water!
It was an underwater battle of beasts!
For awhile, I watched as the Platinum Prince remained in stealth mode, away from our Empress
who was clearly looking for him.
This to me seemed like a good tactic.
If this male was going to survive the wrath and power of our Empress, the best thing for
him to do was to wait until she calms...
Woah!
Out of nowhere, the Empress came lunging out of the shadows, but strangely instead of turning
to him, she took a turn in the opposite direction, only to disappear into her cave again!
OK was this her way of displaying interest now?
If so, I'm decided that crustacean love games are indeed quite confusing.
It now looked like the Platinum Prince, a bit more composed, was ready once again to
make his advance and approach our Empress.
He seemed to be looking for where she disappeared to.
But I watched as she stared at him like a growling she-wolf from her den.
She suddenly shifted into the shadows to meet him.
The Platinum Prince now confused as to her whereabouts shifted around a bit.
Where did she go now?
Woah!
Out of the shadows, she shot out at him claws first, and in a total panic, the Prince was
determined to call it quits!
He climbed the glass wall.
Completely shocked I watched as he crawled out of the waters and plunged deep down into
the pits of the Golden Empire!
No!
My heart dropped!
The Golden Empire would surely kill him.
He was going to die!
I shot up and grabbed my giant tweezers in a scramble to save him.
My heart was in my throat as I clamored about in desperation to fish him out from the dark
caverns of the Golden Empire.
The angle was so tight!
It was hard to see him or even reach him.
The ants now fully aware of this giant in their nest had sounded the alarm and were
all over him!
The situation had gone from bad to dire in a split second... and then...
He was saved.
By a miracle, I managed to grab the Platinum Prince by his claw and drop him into aquatic
safety.
Oh man!
Thank God!
He was a little dirty now, but no worries!
At least he was alive.
Had he been left there for a few minutes longer he would have been completely devoured the
ants.
Utterly numb from panic, I could not believe what we had just witnessed.
I resolved to place our Platinum Prince back into his own aquarium.
It was sad, but it seems the Empress of the Hacienda Del Dorado's Spring Pool was not
interested in sharing her home nor her heart.
Lights off.
By morning, I gave the Empress a leaf to apologize for the traumatic evening we had subjected
her to the night before.
As for the male, it seems, he'll just have to remain a recluse for now in his own kingdom.
I realized that loneliness, is perhaps a very human emotion, or least an experience felt
by animals that are naturally social, who by nature are drawn to their own kind and
live in groups.
There's no doubt in my mind that if I were to separate one of the ants of the Golden
Empire into its own container, it would be the loneliest ant ever, because biologically
it is so wired to live with its own kind.
But as for our sharp-clawed Empress here, I felt, she was perfectly happy being alone,
being the sole ruler of her aquatic palace.
She had all she needed to be fulfilled and perform her service within these waters.
If any of you out there are experts or experienced at crayfish breeding, do feel free to leave
your thoughts.
Well, I learned today, that sometimes it takes a lot more than a romantic ambiance and an
attractive appearance to win the heart of an Empress.
Perhaps, another day.
For now our Empress was to remain a happy recluse.
Now AC Family, speaking of being reclusive and going away, I am sad to announce that
I will not be here to narrate next week's episode, as I will be partaking in a big event
called Youtube FanFest.
But wait, have no fear, AC Family, because for our Mother's Day special of the AntsCanada
ant channel, I have arranged for a very special guest to come in and for the first time ever
be your storyteller of next week's epic ant story.
I'm certain you will love whom I've arranged to come in.
Alright AC Family!
Can you guess which very famous individual I'm having to guest narrate next week's ant
video?
Well, you won't want to miss this first time event, so be sure to hit that SUBSCRIBE button
and bell icon so you don't miss out on our grand Mother's Day Ant episode, and hit the
LIKE button every single time, including now!
And about this Youtube FanFest event, do feel free to tune in to the live stream whose link
I will place here to catch yours truly performing on stage.
It would be awesome to see you AC Family representing in the comments!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would like some clues
as to whom this mystery guest is narrating next week's ant video.
Let's see who can figure it out!
Before we continue to AC Question of the week, I wanted to plug my daily vlogging channel!
That's daily vlogs of my travels around the world, which often includes lots of nature
stuff!
Alright and now it's time for the AC Question of the Week!
Last week, we asked:
What is the term used to describe a preference for dark or night?
Congratulations to Megasaurus who correctly answered:
Nyctophilia
Congratulations, Megasaurus, you just won a free e-book handbook from our shop!
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
What is our crayfish's duty in the Spring Pool of our
Golden Empire?
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, & SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video to help us keep
making more.
It's ant love forever!