I can’t believe I found a flying dragon (Draco sp.) living in my Giant Tropical Wetlands Vivarium! As crazy at it sounds, I suspect it snuck into the tank via the driftwood. This incredible reptile was a dream lizard. It also eats ants and was perfect for my canopy vivarium. But in trying to catch it, it eventually showed me something that made me change my mind regarding my future plans for it. Meanwhile, below the waters, a ‘Green War’ was taking place, for which I had to ensure the right team won. New aquatic creatures were sent into battle! Hope you enjoy this Season 4, Episode 5 of my Ecosystem Vivarium Series. Ant love forever!

I Found a FLYING DRAGON in My Giant Wetlands Vivarium

I just can’t believe this!

This is the Bermuda Rectangle, my giant tropical wetlands vivarium, which will soon be attached to my other two giant vivariums—Pantdora and Orchadia, home to an active ecosystem of various life.

But after adding some creatures into the wetland vivarium last week, I noticed a peculiar form on the driftwood.

“Hey, a lizard!”

At first, I thought it was a large adult house gecko that snuck in via the driftwood pieces.

“You little bugger, welcome to the Bermud…”

Wait a sec…

I looked closer and soon realized—

“Hey, that’s no gecko…”

[Gasp] No way!

“Draco!”

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It crawled out from the bushes onto the driftwood, and I literally died!

So if you’re new to this creature, ‘Draco’ is the name of a genus of flying dragon, aka flying lizard, native to where I live, known for their ability to unfold a flap of ribs on the sides of their body to allow them to glide through the trees.

You can see all that loose skin on the sides of its body that make up the gliding flaps!

Oh, I couldn’t wait to see it glide!

What an awesome shape and skin pattern it had!

Now, I’ve never been lucky enough to find or catch one of these guys, but we struck gold, AC Family!

It was definitely introduced here via the massive driftwood pieces, which were collected from outside and had a ton of holes.

My guess is that when the wood was collected or chopped down, this little guy must have crawled inside and had stayed in the wood until it was installed here.

What an adventure this little one must have undergone!

I decided to name him ‘Draco’ after his genus, as I watched him drink from the moss.

But I was ecstatic about finding Draco—not just because of his cool gliding abilities, but also because of what these lizards love to eat.

You see, they’re one of the few animals in the world that actually love to eat ANTS, along with other small insects like termites, tiny flies, etc.

My dream has always been to house a flying dragon in Orchadia, our treetop canopy vivarium, which is just full of ants.

Which made me wonder…

It had been living here in the Bermuda Rectangle for about two weeks now.

What had it been eating?

Or… had it been starving this whole time?

It was then that I got my answer.

When he was ready, Draco leaned back and began to drop a deuce.

He defecated onto the moss, which would end up nourishing it.

The poop looked quite healthy and large, so he must be eating something in these wetlands.

I resolved to eventually try to catch him, so I could transfer him over to Orchadia.

But first, there was a certain problem I needed to address—

A war was taking place below in the waters.

The next set of creatures were floating in their bags, ready to be released to engage in the Green War.

So, in keeping aquariums, there’s always a delicate balance of nutrients, life forms, and water parameters that can make aquatic worlds difficult to manage, depending on how complex of an aquatic world you’re keeping.

As you may expect, the Bermuda Rectangle is pretty much as complex as you can get, as far as a freshwater chunk of nature goes—

From a water chiller to a massive sump filter, CO₂ canisters to UV bulbs, and fertilizers—all of which represent real factors in nature that play a vital role in keeping the wetlands ecosystem healthy.

But every tank owner knows that this aquatic balance is delicate, and one wrong parameter can lead to death or, in the case of the Bermuda Rectangle, an invasion of algae.

Meet the bad guys, Team Algae.

Algae is a name given to many types of photosynthetic life forms that grow on everything.

It has already begun to grow its long, wispy fibers on the glass, as well as every rock, sand, and plant surface in the water.

The brownish diatoms on the sand are also algae, and the shrimp can’t really keep up with eating it—plus, it isn’t their favorite thing to eat.

And on the opposing team are the good guys in our tank—Team Plants, who are all doing quite well.

Now, this Green War between Team Algae vs. Team Plants is a battle over the same resources—namely light energy from the sun and nutrients in the water.

Now, I’m not afraid of a little algae in my tanks, as aquatic ecosystems do need them, but if left unchecked, algae can completely overtake a tank.

It can grow on the plants, stealing their nutrients and sunlight.

And from an observation standpoint, I wouldn’t be able to film much if the glass is covered in algae.

It was important that the losing team always be Team Algae.

And so, my solution was to call for reinforcements using the powers of Mother Nature’s special soldiers to help our wetlands ecosystem win its Green War against algae.

Let’s release the soldiers now, shall we?

AC Family, this is going to be so satisfying to watch!

First, I released a batch of snails.

I plopped them all in. They were a bit dazed at first, but once they found their bearings, they immediately began to disperse into the vast green world of their new home.

Now, there are two of my favorite species of algae-eating snails here.

The smooth ones are nerite snails, and the ones with spikes are a type of nerite snail called Clithon corona.

The snails began to wander into the vegetation in search of algae.

I held my breath as I watched the first snail racing straight towards the glass.

As soon as it touched the surface, it immediately identified—

“Mmm… food!”

I watched in awe as the snail began to graze from the glass, eating up the algae using its mouth scraper-type teeth.

I loved watching the algae strands disappear into the snail’s mouth like spaghetti.

It was then that I knew—adding in these snails to feed on the algae that the shrimp weren’t willing to clean up was the right decision.

There was a lot of algae here to go.

Snails were starting to eat the algae growing on the sand as well, and more began to discover the algae-covered glass.

It was all so satisfying to watch!

Eat, snails, eat!

Great job, snails!

Guys, what should we name our new team of snails? Let me know in the comments!

Next, I released two types of algae-eating fish.

First, these are albino Chinese algae-eaters.

And next, these fish are called flying foxes.

As soon as the fish were released, they immediately took note of the algae-filled environment and began to feed from all surfaces.

And just like that, our team of algae-eaters was complete!

I couldn’t wait to see the result of the Green War in about a week’s time.

Over the next week, I tried my best to catch Draco, but man, was he fast.

I also really wanted to catch him gliding, but at the moment, it seems he’s either too young or just doesn’t feel the need yet to take huge leaps across the vivarium.

He mostly opts for mini leaps when wandering the tank.

But though I didn’t spot him gliding, I did catch him doing this.

Check it out!

How cool!

He was displaying his dewlap!

That neck flap flare was a clear display of territory ownership.

He officially saw these lands as home.

Perhaps the wetlands weren’t such a bad place for him.

He could definitely swim if he ever fell into the water, and to be fair, there was much more gliding room here than in Orchadia.

Eventually, the Bermuda Rectangle, once complete with its full set of creatures, would be attached to Pantdora via a Cave Tunnel bridge along the ceiling.

So, Draco would eventually have the opportunity to cross over to the Old World vivaria if he wanted to.

So what do you guys think?

Should we just keep Draco in here for now since he seems to be doing okay so far?

In the meantime, every day, I collected various ants for him to eat.

I harvested some of my Leviathans, my pet Marauder Ants, of which I had plenty, brushing them into a small container and placing it into the Bermuda Rectangle for the ants to wander around and hopefully be eaten by Draco.

I also tried giving him arboreal ant species, including the Crematogaster ants from Pantdora.

I never actually caught him eating the ants, but it did look like he was getting bigger and fatter, so he was certainly eating something.

There were also a ton of flying insects all around, which he could have been eating as well.

Whatever the case, it seems our wetlands ecosystem was already ecosystem-ing.

And so too, in the waters!

A week after the introduction of the algae eaters, check out the result.

So sweet!

The glass was now cleaner, and the once abundant green fibers of algae were now gone.

The sands looked much cleaner now, too, and it seemed our plan to win the Green War with the help of our algae-eaters had worked brilliantly.

Overall, our tropical wetlands vivarium was so promising.

The plants and animals appeared healthy and happy, and I couldn’t wait to continue watching the Bermuda Rectangle and all its residents evolve and grow together in biological splendor over time.

Everything was going as scheduled and as planned.

That was until, one morning…

Without warning…

Something truly terrible happened.

After reading some of your comments in the episode where I first built the tank, I began to worry.

A few of you expressed concerns over the possibility of the tank leaking one day.

But my team of tank builders had built many tanks and ponds in the past, and two weeks had gone by problem-free, so I didn’t think anything of it.

Until one morning…

I woke up…

To the worst nightmare possible.

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