I created the ultimate cockroach cave tunnel as a connection to my giant vivariums. My three giant vivaria have been longing for a connection, where the plethora of life within could have free access to all three living spaces, each of which offer differing habitats. After months of planning, I built the ultimate cave tunnel which would house a colony of cockroaches, acting as a refugium for the highly important creatures in the forest. Hope you enjoy this Season 4, Episode 14 of my Ecosystem Vivarium Series. Ant love forever!
I Created a COCKROACH CAVE Tunnel to Connect My Giant Vivariums
Oh man, hope you’re ready for the roachiest cave ever.
This is Hydromeda—my giant tropical wetlands vivarium.
And this is Pandora—my giant rainforest floor vivarium.
And this here is Arcadia—my giant canopy vivarium.
Each of these three giant vivaria belong to a grand biological project of mine to study how ecosystems work in the wild, and each vivarium hosts a ton of life, from insects to reptiles, fish, mollusks, amphibians, to even mammals.
Currently, the worlds of Pandora and Arcadia are connected via a glass bridge of vines, so the various creatures living within can choose to move freely between tree life and ground life.
But this week, I finally completed a second bridge I’ve been planning for months that connects Pandora and Arcadia to Hydromeda.
Now the rainforest creatures will have their very own wetlands to explore—if they choose.
But this new tunnel will certainly be special.
If creatures want to pass through, they must cross this wild and crazy rock space full of tons and tons of cockroaches.
Welcome to Episode 14, Season 4 of my ecosystem vivarium series here on the AntsCanada ant channel.
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With the main glass structure of the bridge completed, it was time to start building the great cave, which was to form the bridge between worlds, as well as host a massive colony of cockroaches.
Using rocks, we began to form the shape of the cave walls and ceiling.
You guys will love what this all looks like when done.
So you may be asking:
“AntsCanada, why roaches?”
Well, I’ve been doing research since last year regarding cave-loving animals that I could possibly put inside our cave, and have visited several tropical caves in my life.
But sadly, a lot of the animals I’ve been wanting to add into this cave tunnel are either unavailable in the pet trade where I live, or were creatures I just haven’t been able to find myself in my wild local collections—except for roaches.
Which, I have found, exist in all the tropical caves I’ve ever visited.
In fact, during my research excursions to Borneo, one cave I visited was extra abundant in roaches, and they were an integral part of the cave ecosystem—feeding on creatures that fell onto the cave floor, processing bat guano and other animal waste into rich soil, etc.
In our rainforest, roaches play a vital role as detritivores and as a primary prey insect in the ecosystem.
And so, AC family, as much as this might turn some of you off, I’ve decided to recreate exactly what I’ve seen in nature and turn this cave tunnel into a cockroach cave.
Essentially, a space where roaches can thrive, hide, breed, form massive colonies, and send its members out into our rainforest worlds to do their great work as detritivores and food for our predators.
We made sure to create plenty of hiding spaces, crevices, and tunnels for the roaches.
As a binding agent, we used scaping glue—but we did so cautiously because when the glue processes, it gets really hot.
Much of the rockwork was also pieced together using simple physics, with surrounding rocks supporting its position.
Believe it or not, this cave-scaping process took 2 days to complete.
But when it was all done, the new cave tunnel looked like this.
Behold—our rainforest trifecta’s new cave tunnel.
What do you think?
Let’s have a tour of the cave, shall we?
In my mind, this cave tunnel was a natural passageway through a rocky structure between Pandora and Hydromeda.
Creatures from Pandora can climb up this entanglement of vines and rock cliffside into a curious opening leading into the cave tunnel.
The cave is full of cool twists and turns, of rock formations, stalactites, and a ton of little crevices and spaces.
Definitely a cool, intricate passageway between Pandora and Hydromeda.
It also had gaps in its ceiling, where an LED strip lighting on a timer could mimic sunlight trickling through the spaces during the daytime, as well as roots growing from imaginary plants and shrubs atop this rock structure.
Looking up from beneath, it was almost like I was truly standing within a massive cave.
The sight was both humbling and beautiful—like staring up in awe inside Mother Nature’s cathedral.
The inside of the cave can be accessed through these two side panels, which open for easy cleaning of the bottom glass if needed.
That right there is the cotton blockade to keep animals from crossing the bridge for now.
I’ll be removing it soon.
But beyond it, a sharp turn would eventually bring us to Hydromeda, where creatures could descend onto the west island of the wetlands.
All in all, it was four long meters of cave tunnel that creatures could use or live in.
Which brings me now to the roaches.
AC family—for all of you out there afraid of roaches, don’t click away.
It’s time for some well-needed exposure therapy.
Challenge yourself to watch.
Ready? Let’s add them in.
As I threw the roaches into the cave, they immediately began to scurry away in all directions.
Heat…
Heat… heat… heat…
Heat…
Heat…
Heat… heat…
Some were even pouring out of the bridge onto my body and onto the ant room floor!
I threw these stragglers into Pandora.
This process was much harder than I thought it would be.
And finally—they were all in.
I looked into the cave’s crevices and couldn’t believe what I saw.
The roaches—as I’d hoped—occupied the various gaps and spaces in the rocks.
I hoped the roaches could learn that they could always retreat to this cave space for refuge and reproduce peacefully, as there were plenty of spaces into which the roaches could squeeze that larger predators would not be able to access.
This cave tunnel could act like a refuge—a roach-generating machine for our rainforest ecosystem.
I could already see that they were in the mood to start breeding, which was a good sign.
Not to mention, all those little red oothecae laying everywhere—roach egg sacks containing babies soon to hatch.
So, what do you guys think?
Would you crawl through this roach tunnel for a million dollars?
But my next question is—what should we name this new cave tunnel?
Leave your name suggestions in the comments, and I’ll choose my favorite to be announced in the next episode.
I plan to add more cave-dwelling creatures in as I’m able to source them over time, and can’t wait to see what animals start using the bridge—to either live in or make the great crossing to the other vivaria.
But for now, this cave belongs to the roaches.
As much as roaches give a lot of people the heebie-jeebies—including me—they seem to be Mother Nature’s chosen ones.
Ordained worthy of occupying in huge numbers the natural stone pews of her beautiful cathedrals we know as caves.
Watching the roaches protected within the cave’s crevices, I was reminded how caves play a crucial role on the planet in preserving biodiversity.
The unique conditions inside the subterranean chambers provided by caves worldwide create safe havens for creatures—some of which have evolved to adapt to the darkness and limited resources found within caves, and can’t survive anywhere else.
As it relates to our rainforest ecosystem, if prey insects like our roaches had no suitable hiding places, our rainforest ecosystem would simply not work—as the voracious predators would find every single roach and drive them to extinction in our vivaria.
But with this cave now offering a whole network of additional hiding spots, we can better secure the future of the roaches in our rainforest—so they can continue to play their important role at keeping our rainforest ecosystem alive and thriving.
I was so happy to finally integrate a cave system into our rainforest.
So now that our cave tunnel was complete, it was time to remove the blockade to finally make the great connection event of our three rainforest worlds official.
Let’s do this, AC family.
And just like that, the great connection event of worlds was complete.
Our three-part rainforest is one.
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Heat… heat…