Welcome to Part 12 of my Ecosystem Vivarium Series, where I take you on a full tour of my 1,000-gallon cloud rainforest vivarium, Pantdora, now matured with new animals, plants, and awe-inspiring biological events!

I created my dream tank, a 1000 gallon cloud rainforest ecosystem vivarium. The ecosystem within has had two months to mature, and there are new animals, plants, and updates to show you. Join me on a full tour of Pantdora, and witness some of the most incredible biological events never before seen. This is Part 12 of my Ecosystem Vivarium Series.

2 Month Evolution of My Giant Rainforest Vivarium

This is Pantdora, my 1,000-gallon cloud rainforest vivarium, with its own automated climate, winds, and photoperiod. It is home to a vast array of tropical plants, fungi, and animals aplenty, from herbivores to predators to scavengers. Ants to reptiles—they all live here, interconnected, forming an ecosystem within glass.

It took me months of planning and six days to build, but a lifetime to dream about. It’s indeed the greatest biological project and undertaking of my life.

Pantdora has had two months to mature and has come a long way in its evolution since it was first created. So, join me on an updated grand tour of these lush lands as we explore Pantdora’s ever-changing, ever-evolving bioscape.

You will love all the creatures that live in the rainforest now, as well as the incredible surprise event I stumbled upon by pure luck, which I will show you at the end of this video.

We also welcome our newest members to the rainforest: a new colony of carpenter ants that I’ve been eager to add to these lands, as well as other new arrivals that will have many of you shouting at your screens.

Welcome to Part 12 of my ecosystem vivarium series, a full update and epic tour of my giant rainforest vivarium, to see what Mother Nature has been up to these past two months within our majestic tropical kingdom, here on the AntsCanada Ant Channel.

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Dark Horde

Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy!

Shhh… Look!

Members of the Dark Horde, including a queen, were gathered within a pocket in the Hallelujah Tree Stump. These were among the remaining camps of invasive black crazy ants within the rainforest, and getting rid of them was imperative—or at least their numbers had to be controlled. So, I had a plan.

I watched as Dark Horde guards stood ready to fight around the last remaining members of their once-great empire. It looked like the ants were asleep. It was my chance.

Suddenly, from the skies, an alien black hole vortex came and sucked them out from their place, instantly transporting them to another dimension. I managed to spot several lone queens wandering around in search of the “main colony,” who, of course, were now gone, and I abducted them as well.

It actually hurt me to have to intervene and do this, because I do love all ants, and it wasn’t the Dark Horde’s fault they were invasive. But it needed to be done if Pantdora was to thrive the way it was intended. Let me show you how quickly the rainforest transformed and recuperated in just a week after the once-dominating invasive black crazy ants were largely removed from the ecosystem.

The marauder ants were out celebrating and foraging. It had been a while since I’d seen these ants gathered above ground like this during the day. It seems the marauders were a lot freer now that we had eliminated their main competitor.

By the way, AC Family, I’ve been meaning to give this colony a name. What should we name them? Let me know in the comments!

Alongside the marauders were plenty of baby crickets frolicking across the forest floor rather care-free. It was amazing to see so many crickets happily scuttling about in search of food. Both the marauders and the crickets were loving this Dark Horde-free existence.

Carpenter Ants

A swarm of ants began trailing from their nest as a supermajor emerged to join in the exciting endeavor. These were marauder ants, but not the colony in Pantdora, rather my own personal colony, the Leviathans. It was feeding time, and the ants were arriving in droves from the mouth of the seadragon that forms the exit of their nest.

But, AC Family, I wanted to show you this. You see that swarm? This colony has been allowed to feed and grow over the course of a year, devoid of competitors or population-regulating factors.

Keeping ants this way is great, but in nature, an ant colony like this would have to contend with predators, natural events, and competing ant species, which would help curb the population and possibly make them stronger.

So, it was time to add another player into Pantdora to ensure more competition among the ants so that there would be greater balance and no one species dominating. This was a new orange carpenter ant colony that I’ve been waiting to introduce into the territories since the very beginning but couldn’t because of the Dark Horde’s problematic dominion over Pantdora.

Welcome to Pantdora, my beloved carpenter ants.

I placed their test tubes into two holes within the Hallelujah Tree Stump, where I knew the ants would love nesting. Interestingly, I spotted black crazy ants emerging from the hole, one even carrying brood as it abandoned ship. I didn’t mind the few Dark Horde members in there because I knew the carpenters would be able to deal with them. The carpenter ants were big enough to displace them and spray a powerful amount of formic acid if needed.

The ants began to move their brood towards the darker side of the test tube. The test tube at the top was instantly empty. I couldn’t wait for this carpenter ant colony to move in and take up their place within the ecosystem as the newest ant species in town.