Welcome to the mesmerizing world of Pantdora and Orchadia—two interconnected vivariums that form a thriving ecosystem within glass. This blog takes you on an incredible journey through my 1000-gallon cloud rainforest floor vivarium, Pantdora, and its upper tree canopy counterpart, Orchadia.

What you’re about to read is a tale of discovery, surprises, and the delicate balance of nature. From the mysterious invasion of ghost ants to the hatching of new life and the revelation of hidden creatures, every moment spent observing these ecosystems is a testament to the beauty and complexity of life.

This is more than just a blog; it’s an invitation to witness the fascinating dynamics of plants, fungi, and animals coexisting in harmony. Strap in and prepare to uncover Pantdora’s most shocking secrets and the incredible stories that unfolded while I was away for 18 days.

Dive in, and let nature’s wonders captivate you!

I Came Back to a New Baby Animal Living in My Giant Rainforest Vivarium

This is my 1000-gallon cloud rainforest floor vivarium, called Pantdora, attached by way of a glass bridge to an upper tree canopy vivarium on the floor above called Orchadia. Both worlds form a multifaceted ecosystem of plants, fungi, and a menagerie of animals—a majestic biological world within glass.

Now, this is what the tank looked like 18 days ago before I had to leave the country for some important work. I felt that the ecosystem, in theory, should effectively maintain itself while I was away, but when I returned home 18 days later, I was in for a great surprise.

Back home after 18 long days, I approached the tank and couldn’t believe my eyes. I was shocked at how different Pantdora looked. It was like I was staring at an entirely new forest. Immediately, I was taking notice of all the changes when something running through the foliage caught my eye.

“Hey, what’s that?!”

An unidentified creature was lurking in the shadows. This is the story of how I found out what on Earth happened in Pantdora while I was away for 18 days.

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It was crazy how different the tank looked now. The foliage had grown in like crazy, something had broken the vines that used to extend upward through the glass bridge into Orchadia, and more. I was sure so much had happened while I was away. It was time to begin scanning the tank.

Now these were my concerns of top priority:

First, 18 days ago, before leaving, I discovered a massive ghost ant invasion had taken place in Pantdora—a moving in of a highly invasive species of ant that broke in from the outside and was capable of disrupting the ecological balance within Pantdora. This was bad news for all life in the vivarium. Had they wreaked havoc while I was away? I knew we would first see it in the extinction of competitors, i.e., other ants. I wanted to see if any of the other ant species in our rainforest had been wiped out while I was away due to out-competition or full-out murder by the ghost ants.

Second, how was Orchadia, our newest vivarium, which was still in its infancy and developing? With the least amount of biodiversity at the moment, Orchadia would be less resilient to disruptive forces like ghost ants.

Third, I needed to know: What was that creature I saw scurrying through the vegetation? Was that Snip, our resident baby sun skink? Or was that something else?

Which leads me to my final question:

The Mystery Egg.

Two weeks prior to leaving, I had buried a mystery egg I found in my yard. Experts had guessed it was either a monitor lizard egg, sailfin dragon, or perhaps some snake, like a cobra. The experts also said it was likely dead, and I tried candling it to see if there was a fetus growing inside but saw nothing. It also had a dent on top and looked like it was rotting, so I buried it in Pantdora to make use of the nutrients for healthy soil. I wondered how far along it was rotting, and well… if it was rotting.

I would soon uncover the answers to all of these questions. Little did I know, I was up for some interesting surprises, including a certain someone who was watching me from the shadows, soon to reveal itself for the first time.

First up: Ghost Ant Invasion.

I checked the back of the rock wall where I last saw the ghost ant supercolony setting up camp, and to my surprise, the ghost ants were nowhere to be found. Surely, while I was away, the supercolony had stationed either somewhere else in our rainforest or had decided to move back out of the tank. I had hoped it was the latter, but this discovery of the ghost ant desertion caused me to stumble upon another very interesting discovery.

Also, behind the rock wall, they looked like snowflakes against the glass. Newly hatched huntsman spiders had emerged into our rainforest. My heart leapt with joy to see what was likely the third or fourth generation of huntsman spiders born in our rainforest. They were definitely the babies born from the adult huntsman we spotted cradling an egg sac a month back.

I also found both sides of the pita-shaped egg sac: one piece on the soil and the other in the water among the rocks. The spiderlings were so cute, but I knew, despite hundreds of these huntsmen being born from a single egg sac, only a couple would actually live to reach adulthood and mate to found the next generation. The rest would be preyed upon or cannibalized somewhere along the way. It’s the crazy life of huntsmen, but I was happy to see them so successful within our rainforest. Good luck, spiderlings!

I began to search Pantdora for signs of where the ghost ants might have moved, if they were still in here, and also take attendance of the other ant species to see if the ghost ants had driven other ant colonies to extinction.

On the stump, some bright marmalade-colored carpenter ants emerged excitedly to forage. From the looks of things, they had found a new food source somewhere and had to get to it before the other ants did. Good to know, the carpenter ants are OK.

At another area of the stump, a dead roach carcass was moving, when suddenly, from it emerged a dwarf ant. How cute! A trail of them was traveling to and from the roach. Suddenly, a large looming passerby appeared. It was an Asian bullet ant, and it could smell the roach carcass. It attempted to feed but later decided to ditch the carcass, probably because the dwarf ants had already claimed it.

No worries. It knew there was plenty of prey for it to find in the forest. I watched as it descended down the stump and passed a living cricket. I think it was searching for easy prey, something dead perhaps, which meant the ants weren’t too hungry right now. Good to know the dwarf ants and Asian bullet ants were OK.

I began to search the stump for crevices that the ghost ants might want to move into had they stationed deeper into our forest. Ghost ants are minuscule and could literally be anywhere.

Oop! Another ant. It was a spiny ant rushing down in quite a hurry. It disappeared into a cavity within the stump. I suppose this was where the spiny ants were nesting, and then I spotted why the spiny ant was in such a rush. It was carrying brood up the stump. This was a colony move to a new home!

Let’s see where the spiny ants were relocating their nest to. Aha, there! Another ant emerged and rushed down the stump, stopped to look around, and then headed back into the crevice. Over the next few minutes, I watched the colony move into their new home and smiled, seeing how excited they seemed to be moving into their new place.

I spotted one of their queens moving in, too. It was so cool seeing the ants leaving the opening and moving in more brood. What a great location, too. You would never know there was a nest of ants here. Happy to know the spiny ants were OK and holding their own in the forest.

But the spiny ants weren’t the only ones moving homes.

The weaver ants were also quite busy up in the vines. I saw some workers crawling along the vines, some carrying brood, and others carrying smaller stubborn workers to the new nest, which was located somewhere up in the vine foliage.

Speaking of the vines, the fallen vines sprawled all over the ferns gave the weavers a nice bridge across the land where they could find prey insects and also gain easier access to other parts of the forest.

By now, the weaver ants had mastered their way around these woods, and I was happy to see that they seemed to be doing well, too, unharmed by any ghost ant presence.

“Hey, ghost ants! Did you see that? There!”

OK, so the ghost ants are still around. I continued to search for where they were nested. I spotted a crab hiding under the stump, nibbling on edibles from the forest floor. A new group of fairy ink cap mushrooms was growing quietly from the soil.

I was happy to see that the pothos in the forest was truly beginning to thrive, and while I was away, it had attached roots onto the stump to help it climb higher and reach the best light. I also noticed new termite tunnels had been constructed while I was away. But searching for a colony of ghost ants seemed a bit impossible since the vegetation was so thick now. The ghost ants could literally be anywhere.

I spotted giant trap-jaw ants, gnome ants, as well as marauder ants. So, I guess we can assume for now, the ghost ants had not been a threat as of yet to Pantdora, but perhaps the ghost ants had nested somewhere above.

Orchadia

It was time to go up to Orchadia. Other than a few plants having died and certain decor having strangely shifted from its place, Orchadia seemed pretty normal, with prey insects crawling everywhere. I spotted the cool pink weevil in the banyan leaves, the funny calico-colored weevils, an Asian long-horned beetle, as well as this strange beetle against the glass—or was it even a beetle?

It had some interesting appendage coming out of its rear—or ewww, was that some kind of parasite? Any experts care to chime in and identify what insect this thing is? It was tiny, perhaps two or three millimeters long.

Looking around, I failed to find any signs of ghost ants anywhere, which led me to believe they weren’t here. Let’s cross them out as a concern for now.

Although the ghost ants seemed to no longer be a concern in our rainforest, little did I know, something else in the soil would be.

Night fell in Pantdora, and I spotted Godzilla, our resident baby caiman, floating in the pond. He always takes my breath away every time I see him. What a marvelous beast. There were now no more fish in the water, as he had eaten them all. And man, look at that full belly.

He was indeed a top predator in our rainforest, and judging from his size now, it seemed his time was nearing to be moved out into a much more suitable home. I sure would miss seeing him here in Pantdora. As part of our regular training, I tossed him a roach, which he snapped up happily. Nothing gets by this croc.

He swam towards the back of the pond and even submerged with his kill in his mouth before swallowing it down. Belly full, he submerged underwater to rest.

I spotted geckos crawling around the tops of the tank, and tree frogs emerging for the hunt. Hi, Kermit! All seemed well on this night in our rainforest. But nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for what I would be spotting the next day.

Looking into Pantdora, I spotted Snip, our resident baby sun skink, basking in his usual spot on the stump. He was a bit bigger now, and I was happy to see that he hadn’t been gobbled up by Godzilla. Snip here was born in Pantdora from sun skinks that used to live here but that I released back into the wild some time ago.

He was one of those surprise births, and the only memory we had left of our past beloved sun skinks—or so I thought.

A crab had emerged from its burrow, but something near it left my jaw on the floor. OMG! What is that?! It was a lizard.

Mystery Egg

My heart jumped when I spotted something moving in the pit into which I had buried the mystery egg two weeks before I left. What on Earth? No way!

Looking back, I don’t know why I went in with my bare hands, considering what could have been beneath the surface, but I was overcome with excitement! Oh, OK. It was just a beetle grub, probably a larva of a rhino beetle. Hey buddy! Happy to see you!

I placed it back into the pit and covered it back up. I couldn’t wait to see rhino beetles in Pantdora again!

But with my curiosity of the mystery egg piqued, I decided to go ahead and carefully dig up the area where I buried the mystery egg to see how far along it had rotted over the past month.

My heart began to race when I saw the surface of the egg. Woah! The dent it once had was now gone, and the egg seemed much more turgid and firm now to the touch. Plus, it didn’t appear to be rotting.

Oh, man! AC Family, what do you think? Could this egg actually be alive, carrying a developing fetus of some snake or lizard? If so, I wasn’t sure what to do about it.

In a panic, I decided to bury it back up. I mean, it had to be dead, right?

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