And speaking of this delicate and important partnership, it seems one of our biggest ant
colonies on this channel has been long deserving of their own territory upgrade and expansion,
and many of you have also shared this sentiment!
AC Family, you guys demanded for an update on the most famous and long-standing ants
on this channel: the Fire Nation, our massive and ravenous fire ant colony.
These ants are the OG's of the AntsCanada ant channel, and it was time to give them
a new home.
And so AC Family, I would like to introduce to you, a great new kingdom where fire and
water shall meet!
AC Family, behold!
The "Selva de Fuego", the Jungle of Fire!
Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the bell icon.
Welcome to the AC Family.
Enjoy!
Oh boy!
I did it AC Family.
I created what has to be the most exotic, most ambitious, highly complex, and certainly
the largest ant world I've ever made in the history of my ant keeping journey.
Today's ant story, is a tale of how the "Selva de Fuego", the name given to my new Amazon
River jungle-inspired, South American biotope paludarium, which was designed to be the new
home of my massive and raging fire ant colony, was made.
And just so you know, the ending of all of this will completely shock you!
I was speechless.
The name "Selva De Fuego" in Spanish means "the Jungle of Fire".
My desires to recreate the Amazon River Jungle, the native home of these notorious tropical
ant invaders you guys named "The Fire Nation", began when I first started to play with paludarium
setups with my other ant colonies.
I felt, if there was going to be an ant colony in my ant room that was perfectly fitting
for a half land, half water enclosure, it would be these fire ants, who are designed
to take on water.
As we saw on a previous video on this channel, fire ants can form living rafts or even underwater
air pockets when submerged.
Living naturally around water in the Amazon rain forest is something these fire ants are
built for.
But I knew constructing such a habitat was not going to be easy.
First, the enclosure had to be escape-proof, and the Fire Nation is an intelligent society
of escape artists.
They are constantly and routinely looking for and testing out weaknesses in my setups,
so in designing their new enclosure, I knew it had to offer zero escape options.
And before you guys mention it, an air tight lid was not an option if I was planning on
maintaining the inside of the enclosure, the river section of the paludarium, and feeding
the ants.
Second, I wanted the enclosure to be big enough to house the colony for at least the next
two years.
Currently the colony is at well over a million ants and counting.
This paludarium had to be massive!
Third, if we were going to go all out on this setup, I figured we may as well have completely
committed to creating the most accurate replication of the Amazon River jungle possible for our
fire ants.
My plan was to make this a South American biotope, meaning all life entering and living
in this paludarium, both plants and animals, both on land and in the water, was going to
be native to the South American Amazon.
Finally, I had to try to pull all of this off without getting stung - "try" being the
operative word!
The idea was just crazy, but as master ant world creators, I was up for the challenge.
Our beloved Fire Nation have long deserved and needed a new and larger home.
So, after temporarily relocating the larger part of the Fire Nation's setup, I went to
an aquarium manufacturer to have them custom-design a huge 100 gallon long but deep glass enclosure
and asked for them to create it with a top lip, as well as a partition which sectioned
off about 35% of the floor area.
I also needed a hole for cables.
When it was installed in our ant room, I went straight to work, first adding our soils,
then driftwood, then the plants, then the substrate for the river, then the water.
After many hours of work, this is what our new Amazon River jungle world looked like.
AC Family, behold the "Selva de Fuego" our new Amazon River Jungle, South American biotope
paludarium.
Do you like it?
Let me show you guys around!
All plants in this habitat are native to the South American Amazon basin.
First, let's check out the epiphytes.
We have Tillandsias and Spanish moss, both air plants which absorb water from humidity
in the air and rain that hits their leaves.
Also adding to the natural woodwork are epiphytic Neoregelia bromeliads which don't need soil
to grow but instead grow attached to wood and tree fibres.
Along the ground we have Maranta, an arrowhead plant, lots and lots of nerve plants, and
my personal favourite, these gorgeous silvery-purple Peperomia caperata plants.
On extreme ends we have heart-shaped philodendrons.
All of these plants were hand-selected for their growth size, which is critical because
we can't have the plants grow large enough to offer an escape opportunity for the Fire
Nation.
Now let's move into the river.
The river was created using a submersible filter hidden behind these rocks downstream,
whose water output I connected to a tube which runs behind all these plants and out the other
end of the tank, creating a continual cycle of steady river current.
Isn't that cool?
We fully had a linear river in this setup.
I decided to keep the back wall of the River bare so that we could have a view of the underground
tunnels of the Fire Nation when they move in.
This entanglement of aquatic moss will be great at naturally filtering debris carried
downstream by the currents of this river, and this moss attached to this rock will help
at filtering any debris floating on the water's surface.
My favourite, though are these floating plants called frog bit, whose long roots extend like
jellyfish tendrils downward to anchor the plants in place.
These frog bit will be perfect at consuming up toxic waste nitrates produced by the aquatic
animals that will be living in this river.
Aquatic animals you ask?
AC Family, you must know by now that of course we'll be adding aquatic creatures to these
waters!
Let's meet them now, shall we?
Eagerly awaiting to be released into our Amazon River world, is our aquatic dream team!
First, to hang out in the upper levels of the river, meet this flamboyant and gorgeous
gang of black-eared panda guppies.
Just look at their striking colours!
Metalic sky blue, with black pectoral fins, and firey red patterned fan tails make these
some of the most beautiful fish I have ever seen in my life.
This gang of guppies is a macho group.
They are all boys, and the reason for that is because guppies when given the opportunity,
breed like crazy and I don't want them to overpopulate the River.
Also, breeding happens to shorten their lifespan and we need these aquatic adonises to live
as long as possible.
Guppy gang, guppy gang, guppy gang, guppy gang...
Sorry, I just had to.
Next, to inhabit the mid-level and lower parts of the river, is this cute pair of golden
ram cichlids.
This breeding pair just met and were betrothed only a couple days ago, so you may notice
the uncomfortable awkwardness.
Let's not show that we notice.
Moving along, we have this swim team of albino Corydoras catfish.
These guys will be awesome at cleaning up organic matter sitting at the bottom of the
river.
They are our aquatic cleanup crew!
What's cool about this species is they must breath air oxygen along with oxygen in the
water to survive, so they come up to the surface for a quick grab of air every now and then.
They love hanging out together!
And finally, to survey all areas of the River for standing protein matter is this assassin
snail, but don't ever let him know you're looking.
He's terribly self-conscious!
And there you have it!
The community of creatures which shall live in our Amazon River.
I've selected these animals carefully for their compatibility with the habitat, space,
and each other, but also because they may potentially feed on drowned members of our
Fire Nation, helping with population control.
I say "potentially" because I don't actually know if these creatures will eat fire ants,
but based on their bio profiles, there was a good chance they would.
And so, AC Family, let's add these river beasts into the Selva de Fuego's waters.
Viva!
Guys, you won't believe... how beautiful these new creatures looked within our Amazon River!
I couldn't look away!
The school of guppies danced and played together
riding the river currents with exhilaration and exuberance.
Our Assassin snail began climbing the rocks.
The Corydoras catfish hung out together chilling out along the bottom warming up to the huge
pebbly ground they've never before seen but would soon come to love, and when they thought
I was gone, our pair of Golden Ram cichlids came peeking out from behind the rocks
to start exploring and looking for where in this big river they were going to establish
their honeymoon home.
I was super satisfied with our new river inhabitants.
The filter used to keep the River clean and running contained filter medium from my larger
established tank, so the existing beneficial bacteria could handle the bioload created
by these water creatures.
I had no doubt in my mind, that these originating river plants and animals would keep the Rivers
of the Selva de Fuego healthy and vibrant from now on.
By the way, these creatures of course need names, so leave your name suggestions for
the guppies, rams, corys, and snail in the comments section and I will choose my top
5 favourites for us to vote on in a future video.
And now for the moment you've all been waiting for.
It was time to release the ultimate star colony of this channel, The Fire Nation, into the
Selva de Fuego.
The Selva de Fuego offered a huge amount of digging space for the fire ants to live.
The Fire Nation has not had this much living area in their lives.
I was super excited about this huge milestone in the colony's history!
I knew they would love it in here!
It was however, absolutely critical to make sure this move was executed properly, as it
had the potential to go wrong very fast!
The process had to be planned out well and could not rushed.
First, I needed to make sure the Selva De Fuego's barrier was applied.
Along the top of the tank I made sure to paint a thick band of fluon, to make sure the ants
couldn't climb out.
Now, I made sure to tell the aquarium-makers to place an upside down lip along the top,
and so I also applied the fluon barrier beneath this lip all the way around.
Actually, what scared me was that this aquarium had sharp squared edges, so I was hoping the
fire ants wouldn't be able to climb the corners.
Let's hope not, AC Family!
I was also concerned the fire ants might try to escape through this hole accommodating
the power cord of the filter, but I stuffed the space tightly with filter medium and surrounded
the area with fluon barrier.
I hope this will be enough!
Now let's go back to the old Fire Nation territory arrangement prior to the Selva de Fuego's
installation.
One important key step was, I had to make sure I knew exactly where the queen was.
As the primary egg-layer, she was the most important member of the entire colony, and
knowing of her whereabouts was vital to ensuring a successful colony move.
So to find her much more easily, I took a pitcher of water and gently poured this water,
little by little, every few hours into the Fire Palace.
This automatically would incite the ants to instinctively start moving the whole colony
to higher grounds, i.e. into their two Hybrid Nests.
After a day of doing this, eventually the Fire Palace was completely flooded out, but
don't worry.
The Fire Ants that chose to stay behind began forming living rafts which the ants could
actually paddle around using their collective leg force.
Now let's peek into the Fire Nation's Hybrid Nests.
Wow!
The majority of the ant colony was indeed in here.
But now to find the queen in this crowd.
It was like a Where's Waldo challenge, but eventually I noticed a mass ball of ants by
an opening of one of the rooms.
There, my friends, was her royal Fire Ant highness, the queen of the Fire Nation.
Incredible!
I hadn't seen her in months!
I felt as though I was looking at a celebrity, the most famous ant of the most famous ant
colony on this channel.
It was thanks to her great egg-laying work that we have all had the awesome opportunity
to enjoy and learn from fire ant watching on this channel.
In fact, I credit her for the initial growth of this channel and the global assembly of
the AC Family.
This short moment with her now was extremely meaningful to me.
She and her entire colony absolutely deserved this new epic space.
So now that I knew the queen was in this Hybrid Nest, with the help of my friends, we detached
the whole Hybrid Nest and Outworld Network from the Fire Palace.
That network now sits here on top of the Selva de Fuego.
At this point, the Fire Nation has been waiting patiently in this confined space for a day
and a half, so they were super eager to move out.
They were restless.
The next step was I needed to uncover both Hybrid Nests and expose the furthest Hybrid
Nest to a bright light.
This would encourage the fire ants to move out and into the paludarium.
To form the grand bridge into the Selva de Fuego, I fixed this tube into place and set
the other end of it onto this wooden limb so I could clearly film them as they moved
into Selva de Fuego soils.
The only thing left to do now was to connect this bridge tube to this fluon-covered tube
connected to the colony.
Alright, are you guys ready for this?
All is set!
The time has come, AC Family, to finally release the Fire Nation into their new Amazon River
jungle territories, the Selva de Fuego!
1 - 2 - 3!
I connected the Fire Nation's tube to the bridge tube.
Let's watch them move in!
The Fire Nation came pouring out of the tube and onto the wooden limb.
It wasn't long before it was clear that the ants have claimed the Selva de Fuego home.
But then I noticed something.
There were some ants that had fallen into the water.
A lot of ants, actually.
More than I was comfortable seeing, and it didn't look like they were dealing too well
either.
The gang of guppies swarmed ominously beneath them, seeming very interested in these isolated
and helpless ants floating at the mercy of the river's currents.
Suddenly, I grew fearful and began to question my choices.
It looked to me as though these fire ants weren't as apt to deal with this river as
proficiently as I had anticipated.
It had only been a few minutes and there were already tonnes of ants fallen helplessly into
the river, which to me meant many, many more would soon join them the more time went on.
The ants were now shipping in the brood.
Things were getting serious!
I even thought I caught the guppies taking test bites at the fallen ants.
Suddenly the worst case scenario came to me and hit me like a knife to the heart!
What if the queen were to lose her footing here and also fall into the water and be eaten!
That would be the permanent demise of the Fire Nation.
My heart raced.
I had to think fast!
I began to panic, as the impending feeling of having made a big miscalculation grew within
me.
AC Family, I can't help but feel like I screwed this time!
I think creating this Amazon River world was one huge mistake!
AC Family, we are amidst a major ant crisis, but I apologize.
This epic ant story must continue in next week's episode, otherwise this video would
run for close to an hour, which based on your comments would not be a bad thing for many
of you, but trust me on this guys, so much craziness and mind-blowing moments happen
amidst this Fire Nation move into the Selva de Fuego, so hit that subscribe button and
bell icon now so you can keep updated on this on going ant story, and remember to also hit
the LIKE button every single time, including now!
AC Inner Colony, the action continues for you.
I have left a hidden cookie for you here if you would like to see more extended play footage
of the initial move of the Fire Nation into the Selva de Fuego.
I can't handle the intensity of these ants!
But I know you guys will love the hidden video.
Also, I realize it is officially the start of ant nuptial flight season for many of you,
so if you would like to get into ant keeping and want to eliminate all guesswork, we provide
ant keepers with simple-to-use and great ant farms.
Check out our various ant keeping kits and supplies at AntsCanada.com and just a reminder
we ship worldwide and offer full email support if you ever have any questions!
Also, I would like to plug my daily vlogging channel for those of you who may be curious
as to what I do in between these weekly ant videos.
I upload daily vlogs of my travels around the world and they often contain nerdy biology
stuff, too!
Next, addressing those who want two videos a week, I'm currently looking into options
for live streaming of my ant colonies.
This is taking me some time so hang in there, I promise one day you guys will see a notification
pop up in your feed that we are live streaming one of our ant kingdoms and I hope when this
happens you guys will tune in to watch!
Let me know which ant colony you guys want to see for our first live stream?
OK and now it's time for the AC Question of the Week!
Last week we asked:
What does polymorphic mean?
Congratulations to Beaver Gaming who correctly answered:
Polymorphic means coming in different sizes and shapes.
Congratulations Beaver Gaming you just won a free e-book handbook from our shop.
In this week's AC Question of the Week we ask:
What did all the plants and animals living in the Selva de Fuego have in common?
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!
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