Creating The Ultimate Ecosystem Vivarium

I've always wanted to try creating the ultimate ecosystem vivarium, but I felt I wasn't quite ready to take on such a complicated project. A successful ecosystem tank would require a very large setup and a working knowledge on biology and the husbandry of various species of animals. But after over 14 years of keeping ant colonies and many other creatures, and now that I have moved the Ant Room to a larger space, I felt it was officially time to attempt the biggest project of my life - the ultimate ecosystem vivarium. This is Part 1 of making the plans and I will be needing the help of the AC Family, my subscribers, to construct it and choose which ant colonies will be living inside the vivarium. Hope you enjoy this week's episode! Ant love forever! This video was shot in 4K Ultra HD resolution.

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Directed/Written/DOP/Edited by AntsCanada
Executive Producer RJ Garcia

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[AntsCanada]

OMG, AC Family! All your species lists! Thank you!!! Super helpful! I'm taking notes, guys. Love you and thank you. This vivarium build will be for us! Ant love forever! 💯❤️🐜 #RoadTo5M

[TheKoekiemonster]

I used to watch this channel years ago. Just popped into my mind and to see how you grew is insane. Good to be back!

[wjm]

For the water, I'd probably put a waterfall on one end, then run a very narrow, but increasingly deep 'river' along the glass edge the length of the terrarium. That would make any fish/amphibians viewable without taking up much real estate while also giving all creatures access to water without needing to invade 'enemy territory' to get to it. For the ants, I don't have preferences, but a suggestion: for species you're unsure about adding, make a few places to add 'portals' into the vivarium. Then you can move existing colonies close and run tubes to connect their existing setups to the vivarium. They can explore, perhaps colonize...but if they start either getting too invasive or they're getting killed off too quickly, the portal could be closed off again to keep both setups safe. It would also be very cool to have a whole group of 'networked' colonies, each with their own home, but still able to interact.

[carbinesnacks]

My dude, u deserve to be on animal planet or something with your own series ive learned so much from u

[NoobixCube]

I just recently discovered this channel, saw the "A War broke out in my rainforest vivarium" video, and it's kind of funny to me that the species he absolutely vetoed are the ones that were accidentally seeded into that vivarium.

[JosephCrowell]

Not fire ants, black crazy ants, marauder ants or leaf cutter ants. Any of them would destroy every other colony and half of the other creatures and/or plants.

[anjuk]

If you are adding weaver ants make sure to include Myrmarachne plataleoides (spider that mimics weaver ants). In wild the are fun to watch..they try to hang around weaver ant colonies to avoid predation, but they don't get too close. Same with some stilt legged flies

[Falkaroa]

You should add a flooding system, so that there isnt always a large body of water, but water does build up in relatively large ponds that allow for a few little water critters to survive in like frogs. And also that way, the ground will be watered, and when it finally drains/evaporates, the ground creatures will break them down so the water does not dirty up.

[EmpressOfExile]

Yes you *should* add the water feature‼️
1. If it's a "tropical" biome, the tropics get more rainfall than any other area on earth.
2. The relatively small # of ants that might drown will just be part of population control!
3. A water portion will *increase* biodiversity more than it limits it.
4. As long as the setup A. Has proper drainage layer under the soil and B. Has the water properly isolated through use of pond liner/glass/etc. then it wont have much negative affect on the terrestrial inhabitants! In fact, it will likely be beneficial to many!
5. It's been done already so we know it works 😂 (the channel is NordicAnts I think that has done many multispecies eco-tanks 🤔)

[AntsCanada]

I'm still torn regarding the water feature. Wouldn't it be soooo cool though to have a trickling stream running through the setup, though??!!! Ahhhh! It's actually a matter of Presentation/Aesthetics vs Functionality/Practicality. AC Family, pls help...!!!

[Noah-wxlk]

Trapjaws are a must, I would love to see them flourish in an ecosystem like this

[inventor]

Regarding the dimensions, having a narrow tank would be problematic if you intend to keep predator species in there. I recommend you increase the width to 5 feet just so that the predator species can have some room to go around eachother's territory. It would also help give enough room for your waterfall.

As for the camera work, you can put a cartesian machine in the top of your tank with a camera on the end. Hell I'll help you design one if needed.
For making your pond there's an old landscaping trick adapted to terrariums you can use, glue a clear polycarbonate container to the bottom of the tank and build your pond inside that. The water won't be able to seep out into the nearby soils. Alternatively if you want to use natural materials you can use clay as it's much less permeable to water than soil but creatures can tunnel through clay so it's unlikely to remain watertight forever.

[rocksandmoss]

I don’t have much of an opinion on the other ants, but personally I think that it would be best to keep the unidentified ants in their own separate terrarium. If they need to be further studied then you wouldn’t have easy access to them in such a large area and they run a risk (though it may be small) if being attacked and defeated. Though if they are successfully identified, then the choice to add them would be all yours.

[mohammadusman]

YEEEESSSS! This MAN, This Creator of antworlds is finally going to do it. I really really hope this turns out the way you plan it man, also wanna see it after few years about what becomes of it. I know this will be epic and one of the best vivarium of the channel. Keep it up #antloveforever

[azoozaidi]

I think it's best to add most of the new/starting ant colonies because they won't have a huge head start unlike the larger colonies and that will also show us how starting colonies hunt pray in there early stages. First colony: black carpenter . second colony: the spades.

[ptomeo]

It would be cool to start all the ants from the same early stages to see how to evolve together…

[Viiklnki]

i love that the more things you make, the more beautiful and greater they become. I'm incredibly proud you're brilliant at what you do!

[noecarette]

If you want something big but still visible, you could do a very big square with nothing at the center. So each side have an outside and inside wall. Then you could use one side as mountains and cut the lower part so you could go "inside" the square (between the inside walls) and have a 360° view

[soupnotsi]

If your going to go big might as well have a really good above and below, plenty of vegetation in the upper part for the ants and other predators but with possible water feature flowing down to a shallow area(allows ants to escape)and then further to a deep area of water. This allows for the water animals to come up to shallow water and disappear into the depths.

[dylanmedow]

What I recommend for the pond issue is you Dice the tank up into three portions dry wettish and very wet that way they'll be a place for basically everything