In the soil, there are a multitude of creatures all living together.
In many cases these co-inhabiting creatures cooperate and help each other, often depending
on each other for survival.
But in many cases, some creatures find themselves in competition over resources, space, and
other needs.
In this bioactive ant farm setup, I was able to observe just that between two teams of
very key players in soil ecosystems of the world.
Today, we’ll be seeing what happens when ants and isopods find themselves in a face
off, and you guys will love the action you’re about to see today.
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Welcome to the AC Family!
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An adult isopod, let’s name it Koi, hangs out under a tent made from the leftover veins
of a leaf the other isopods had finished eating.
Other baby isopods crawl all around hoping to find some decaying scraps left behind.
These isopods, which are a type of crustacean, are detritivores, meaning they specialize
in eating decaying material.
Now ordinarily these creatures aren’t in direct competition with ants over resources,
however as you will see in this video, sometimes they do have unfriendly confrontations under
the right circumstances.
Also, keep on watching until the end as I will be asking a very important question regarding
these isopods living in this setup.
And now on with the video.
Speaking of this setup, welcome to Crimzonia!
It’s a bioactive living space for my carpenter ant colony called the Redwood Warriors.
It’s composed of an ant farm called an AC Ant Tower from antscanada.com, which acts
as the ant colony’s nest.
There are the Redwood Warriors now, hanging out in their favourite chamber.
That large ant right there is Her Royal Highness, the queen of the colony, and all those white
things are the brood, young developing ants.
The AC Ant Tower is connected with tubing to what’s called an outworld, which is supposed
to simulate the outside world.
It’s naturally decorated, and as you saw is just teaming with soil creatures like isopods
who are away hiding most of the time, but you’ll definitely see them start to emerge
as soon as I do what’s coming up next.
Now, it’s in this outworld, AC Family, where I place the Redwood Warrior’s food, and
it just so happens to be the ant colony’s dinner time.
Placing in some sweet jelly.
At first, Crimzonia and all its creatures are still and non-reactive, but the smell
of the jelly is about to start the action!
Let’s watch!
It wasn’t long before a curious ant finds the jelly.
“Yay!
Food!”
Nomnomnomnomnom…
The ant proceeds to feast and fil up its social stomach.
Ants have two stomachs, the first being their crop or social stomach which is kind of like
an ant internal lunchbox for carrying food home to share with the other ants, and second
stomach which is their own.
While it is feasting, it also is releasing a pheromone to attract its fellow ants to
the area, and here comes a second ant now.
“Mmmmm!”
nomnomnomnomnom…
So satisfying watching ants feed.
The two ants take a quick break to lay pheromones then it’s back to eating!
A third ant appears on the scene, attracted by the smell of the ants’ pheromones, and
one of the ants even gives it a taste of the food by barfing the jelly into its mouth,
a process called trophallaxis.
“Mmmmm!
That is quite good!”
That ant was now full and was now on its way back to the nest to barf up some more jelly
into the mouths of its fellow ants, as well as call on more ants to come out and feast
on the jelly.
“Oh ladies!
Have I got some news for you?!”
Inside the nest, the colony was busy caring for the young and cleaning up the house.
At this point, they don’t know about the food in Crimzonia yet but they’re about
to find out about it.
In rushed the worker.
“Guys, guys, guys!
Taste this!”
Barf!
“Mmmm!
That was quite good!
Lezgo!”
The ant follows the pheromone trail laid down by the ant before it, heading directly to
Crimzonia.
In fact, the hype is real, and hungry ants have begun to emerge from the nest to join
in on the Crimzonian feast.
“Guys, you gotta come!
This way, this way, this way!”
I just love watching ants getting excited during feeding time!
At the feeding location, the ants were busy gorging themselves filling up their social
stomachs, and transferring their collections through trophallaxis, little by little to
colony mates wanting a taste.
It was super important that the ants eat up as much as they can as quickly as they can
because prospective thieves could show up at any moment.
Now, AC Family, I didn’t know this, but apparently the smell of the jelly was attracting
the isopods of Crimzonia out of hiding.
I always knew they ate decaying leaves, but didn’t know sweet jelly might tantalize
their taste buds, as well.
And this, AC Family, is where all the action begins!
An adult isopod tries its best to get in at an opportune spot.
It’s like double dutch, enter at the wrong spot or the wrong time, and you’re done.
It slowly creeps in and manages to get its mouthparts on to the jelly.
“Mmmm!
This is so delicious!”
But the close proximity of the ants made the isopod uncomfortable so it broke away and
ran.
It was satisfied with what it managed to eat for now.
In nature, food collection could mean the difference between life or death, so ants
take this feast very seriously.
Back at home, the queen has been busy laying eggs and each of those babies need to be fed
in order to continually grow the colony.
The queen herself, the colony’s sole baby-maker also needs the nourishment to continue the
egg production line, and this jelly blob contains vital proteins, carbs, and vitamins for the
Redwood Warriors, and they just aren’t willing to share!
But the isopods have a few tricks up their sleeves.
Check out this rollie pollie type isopod pretending to be a rock!
That clever little devil!
It makes sure to keep perfectly still, only moving at the right time, which isn’t right
now with that feeding ant on its back.
I think it’s actually discreetly licking up some sweet jelly juice on that rock there.
That’s what I’d do if I were that rollie pollie.
At one point, I watched as Koi decided to approach, lured in by the alluring smell of
the jelly.
It had to be careful.
Nope!
Too risky.
Koi left, but another isopod came in and boom!
Was quickly shooed away by an ant.
The ant stomped around trying to make sure the isopod was gone before heading back to
eat with the others.
But Koi wasn’t about to give up just yet.
The smell of the jelly was just too tantalizing!
The jelly was just something he’d never tasted before.
Maybe if it was careful it might be able to sneak in a quick taste!
Koi crept up slowly.
“Nope!
Not gunna go there.”
Koi needed to choose his every move wisely, or else be attacked by the ants or sprayed
with their painful formic acid.
Maybe if it could advance in from the outskirts.
Koi stood not moving on a nearby rock watching the ants feed, and eventually came to the
decision that it was just too risky.
It proceeded to the nearby leaf litter to eat what isopods like him normally eat, decaying
matter.
There were times when isopods were actually successful at creeping in then leaving unharmed,
and times when Koi tried to make a return only to be chased off by the ants.
Check out these two isopods with different approaches, the one on the right just kind
of moves in without a plan.
Wrong move!
It gets chased off by an ant, but the rollie pollie isopod quickly mimics a rock and remains
undetected.
The ant can smell it’s around somewhere but can’t seem to find it.
The isopod moves but Ooop!
Rock mode!
The ant continues to search the area for the isopod it can definitely smell, but when it
fails to find it, it returns to the gang to proceed with feeding.
But the isopod took the chance to bolt!
It was not willing to take the risk!
I continued to watch the scene as the ants fed and surrounding isopods made attempts
to also have a bite of jelly.
I could tell the isopods were tense, as the ants continued to chase away any approaching
isopods, but it did seem the most effective tactic was to pretend to be a rock, but if
you were one of the flat isopods and not the rollie pollie kind, your failure rate was
pretty high!
Gone!
Now as much as this was a full out aggressive confrontation between ants and isopods, normally
these two creatures as mentioned earlier, are not in direct competition.
In fact, in the bigger picture of things, isopods and ants are allies, depending on
each other for survival.
You see isopods are like the janitors of soil ecosystems.
Back at the nest, you can see how this baby isopod crawls around between the spaces eating
up decaying material in the hard to reach spaces that the ants cannot clean nor get
to.
Working alongside the isopods, there is also a clean up crew of even smaller creatures
known as springtails.
See those little silverish critters?
They eat up harmful mold and decaying material in soil environments, and are truly having
a feast in the Redwood Warrior’s garbage room.
You can see these ubiquitous springtails on the surface, too.
Check out this leftover superworm carcass.
The springtails are busy eating up the scraps and mold growing from it.
So you see, these isopods and springtails are involved in a very important symbiotic
relationship.
The ants depend on the isopods and springtails to eat up dangerous mold and garbage, while
the isopods and springtails depend on the ants to create the garbage.
The ants continued to feast, and I went to bed.
The next morning, I peeked into Crimzonia.
The jelly had all been eaten up.
Now, I had given the ants a lot of jelly, and I highly doubt they ate it all.
My guess, was that as soon as the ants had their fill, the isopods took the opportunity
to eat the leftovers.
And that’s the beauty of nature!
Though there may be times when things get a little heated, all players involved in a
community, in this case within the soil, are mutually beneficial.
Now at the start of the video, I mentioned that I’d be asking you guys something important
about the isopods of Crimzonia, and it’s this.
What should we name them?
Let’s give an official name to the community of isopods and your AC Senate and I will choose
our top 5 favourites for all of us to vote on in a future video or community tab poll.
Thank you, all for participating and I can’t wait to read your name suggestions for them
in the cokments.
I just love being able to watch epic natural scenes like this in a setup.
It’s one of the reasons I just love keeping ants along with their soil inhabitants in
a bioactive setup, because I find you can’t truly appreciate keeping and caring for ants,
if you do not experience their ant lives within the context and role they were designed to
play in the complex tapestry of life.
Ants serve an important function in nature, as do all life forms, and for me being able
to watch the ants take their natural place in an ecosystem, even in a contained simulated
setup like this ant farm and outworld, watching the ants just doing what they would normally
do in the wild, is one of the most gratifying things in the world and such a unique opportunity.
I also really love that I get to experience and discover them with all of you.
And so until we return together to marvel at the fascinating lives of our ants and their
friends, always remember, it’s ant love forever!