Welcome everyone to the AntsCanada ant channel. On this channel, we've seen some pretty incredible
stuff occuring in the lives of ants, but what I was able to shoot for this video was something
I've never ever before seen. In case you haven't been following the saga
of the lives within this terrarium, I along with a tonne of AC Family out there are convinced. This terrarium carries a curse. Every ant colony we have tried to move in
here to inhabit this terrarium we so carefully crafted with selected plants, originating
creatures, and soil, have either died before moving in, thought to have died inside, or
escaped. In fact, some of you have suggested the ghost
of the bearded dragon that died in these lands, is haunting our every attempt to move in our
ants. But AC Family, what we find today inside this
terrarium will truly blow your mind. Keep on watching until the very end. Today, we discover that these cursed lands
harbour a dangerous creature that I had no idea was living secretly in this terrarium
all this time. A serpent. Welcome everyone to another episode of the
AntsCanada ant channel. Please subscribe to my channel and hit the
bell icon. Welcome to the AC Family. Enjoy. Never in my life, have I ever come across
a terrarium that truly acted like it had a mind of its own. Where all the creatures seemed like they were
mere parts to a giant creature, each creature with its own function in the grand superorganism
like in this terrarium. New creatures that I never knew lived here
have begun to emerge, seemingly out of nowhere. Snails for instance, awake to greet the new
day in these rich territories. I believe the snails may have come in with
the ficus' original soils, and they're an interesting addition to this terrarium as
they graze on mosses, plant matter, and decaying material. But more abundant than these and perhaps the
most dominant animal lifeform within this world, are the diminutive critters called
Springtails. Springtails are little creatures which used
to be considered insects, but currently are referred to by scientists as Collembolans. They are omnivorous but feed primarily on
molds and fungi that grow on decaying matter. They also feed on microbes. That is how small they are! To me they seem like flocks of sheep in the
micro world. Also sharing the habitat with the Spingtails,
are these less social but cute critters: Mites. The mites also feed on decaying matter and
fungi, and help with decomposition of material. It seems the flocks of Springtails want nothing
to do with the mites, and vice versa. And now bursting through the flocks comes
a confident ranger. A Titan. For those of you who are new to the channel,
this is a worker ant of a colony of Asian Marauder ants named the Titans, that we recently
moved into this terrarium, and boy are we happy to see it now. We initially thought they had died out sometime
during the transition, but since our last video, we discovered that the colony was actually
still alive and inhabiting these lands somewhere. Seeing the Titans foraging like this was a
good sign that the colony was functioning as normal. If they were having a rough time moving homes
before, it seems now they have gained their second life. The Titan travels confidently searching for
food that it can bring back to its family in a hidden burrow somewhere in this terrarium. I still haven't been able to locate where
the Titans had setup homebase, but I suspect that it is somewhere here, around this driftwood
piece. So, I have begun to place food near there
for the workers to feed from, but here's where I was reminded that the ants were not the
dominant organisms within this terrarium. For in placing this precrushed baby roach
on to the ground's surface, it wasn't long before other terrarium inhabitants began to
snatch up this opportunity for a meal. At first, this cockroach attracted springtails
and various other terrestrial creatures. But then the ground below the cockroach began
to move. A Titan came by but totally was not interested
in the cockroach. Several hours later, I returned to discover
the cockroach half within in the soil being eaten by a creature below ground. It was being eaten by an earthworm, admittedly
one of my worst fears in the entire world. I didn't even know earthworms ate meat, but
it seems the worms in these lands had a taste for dying insects, and surprisingly, so did
the snails! Like a slimy scavenger, a snail came to finish
off the remains which the earthworm left behind. Although they may seem repulsive, earthworms
who belong to the class Oligochaeta, play a major role in the conversion of large pieces
of organic matter into rich humus, thus improving soil fertility. Here you can see a piece of leaf that a worm
has dragged into its burrow. This will then decay and improve soil quality. Earthworm digestion also helps convert vital
minerals and nutrients into more absorbable forms for plants. Watch as this earthworm excretes waste. Each of these pieces of earthworm feces is
loaded with nutrients for plants. Earthworm tunnels also enable the processes
of soil aeration and drainage. There's no doubt these earthworms are biologically
important in this terrarium. But wanna hear something cool, AC Family? Earthworms do not have eyes but you may be
surprised to know that they can see light. They have specialised photosensitive cells
called "light cells of Hess" which help them tell if it's sunny or dark. This is essential because many of their predators
are daytime creatures, and sensing quick light changes from a shadow of a predator can make
the difference between life and death. Watch what happens when I move the light on
this earthworm. It quickly instinctively retreats, but doesn't
go far because it can feel that it is still enclosed in its burrow. It seems all the creatures in this terrarium
have acheived a sort of balance. They kind of live together and feed together,
but I wasn't prepared in the least to discover that in these flourishing lands, lives a creature,
a monster in fact, that I have never ever seen in my life. I was awake at 2AM one night and peeked into
the terrarium and discovered a peculiar creature moving through the moss. At first, I thought it was a really long and
thin millipede. But as I looked closer, it seemed the creature
had no legs. That was odd. Perhaps it was a type of worm? Take a look. And then, that's when I saw it. The creature had a little tiny tongue flickering
out of its front end as it moved about. Oh my G! This creature was a snake! I had no idea snakes this small even existed. It was only about 2 inches long! I couldn't see a pronounced head nor eyes,
but I could see that flickering tongue smelling the world as it navigated around. Can you believe it, guys? An actual snake was living in this terrarium. I found it really cool and assumed it was
feeding off the small terrestrial insects in the terrarium, perhaps feeding on the ever
abundant springtails and mites. I watched it for a good 30 minutes before
it finally disappeared in the shadows. In the morning I decided to look it up online. Typing "blind snake" into Google, the very
first search result that popped up was the exact snake I'd seen the night before. The snake's name was Indotyphlops braminus,
commonly known as a Brahminy Blind Snake, a tiny nonvenomous snake found mostly in Africa
and Asia, but has been introduced to other parts of the world. I was surprised to learn that they also were
commonly called "flowerpot snakes" due to the fact that they have been introduced to
other parts of the world through the plant trade, living secretly in soils of flowerpots. This explains how the snake got into our terrarium
in the first place. It must have come in with the soil when we
planted the ficus. But nothing prepared me for what I was about
to read about Brahminy Blind snakes, that suddenly made my heart jump into my throat. Their diet consisted of larvae, eggs, and
pupae of ants and termites! The snake fed on ant babies! Oh no! Though it seemed the snake had no interest
in the adults, the fact that the snake ate the young of ant colonies meant that it would
affect future generations from developing and in the world of ants, workers only lived
for a good month or two before dying, so the success of the colony and queen depended on
the successful emergeance of succeeding generations of ants. This snake living in our terrarium was a direct
threat and predator to our Titans! This was just insane! What terrible luck! And what made things even worse was how these
snakes reproduced. Brahminy blind snakes reproduce through a
process called parthenogenesis, which meant they were able to reproduce on their own without
a partner to mate with. In fact, all specimens of Brahminy blind snakes
collected, have been known to be female. Turns out all offspring that hatch from their
eggs, are 100% clones of their mothers and therefore are also born female. This was a nightmare, because it meant that
we only needed 1 of these snakes to start a population of them living in these lands,
a population of snakes that fed on ant babies! Little did I know, the night before, the curse
of this terrarium had reared its ugly blind head. Examining the terrarium I couldn't find the
snake anywhere. I kept watch night, after night, after night,
after night, but saw no signs of the snake. I assumed the snake was nocturnal because
when I had sighted it, it was in the wee hours of the night. These snakes apparently live in the nests
of termites and ants but also burrow in soil for most of its life. I guessed that it came out that one time to
feed. My experience with snakes is limited to the
pet snakes I've owned including this male Sonoran green tree python here, named Valentino,
which I've owned for a few years now. He feeds at night usually once every week
or two. If the Brahminy Snake in our terrarium is
like Valentino here, I suppose we can expect for it to emerge again within 1 to 2 weeks. But I began to question, how it was able to
survive so long in the terrarium. I bet when we introduced the Titans, it had
a feast on some ant young. Who knows how much Titan offspring it had
already fed on. Who knows how many Brahminy snakes actually
existed in this terrarium by now. So many questions. Finally, after more nights of failing to spot
the snake, I decided to take matters into my own hands. It was time to go into the terrarium and look
for the snake myself. It was Operation SNAKE HUNT! I carefully took apart the decorations of
the terrarium, careful not to disturb the soil too much in fear of possibly disturbing
the nest of our Titans. I searched and looked carefully for any snake. Sadly, by the end of the search, I could find
nothing. No snake. Perhaps it was truly buried deep in the soil
somewhere. I resolved to keep my eye out every night
for the snake to emerge once again, capture it, remove it from the terrarium, and save
our Titans from their predator. Now here's where I need your help, AC Family. If I do capture this ant baby-eating snake,
should I release it outside, or should I use it as a natural form of population control,
say for the Fire Nation or even the Golden Empire, whom we tried to biologically control
at one point with pitcher plants, which ended up failing because the plants ended up establishing
a pact with the ants. Or should we release the hungry Brahminy snake
into one of the plant pots in which I know the savage black crazy ants that killed our
beloved Jawbreakers a few months back live? Perhaps this would be the perfect opportunity
for vengeance. Take a moment now to vote here, and let your
voice be heard, AC Family. As for the fate of the Titans, there really
was nothing left for me to do but let nature take its course within the terrarium. As ant keepers, and ultimately keepers of
wildlife, we always strive to recreate nature in its perfection so we could be witnesses
of its beauty. But I realized though this entire terrarium
curse saga, that perhaps part of nature's beauty is in its natural chaos and in its
propensity to be uncontrolled, undictated, and its parameters determined by no other
mind besides its own. It was at that moment that I realized that
this curse which tripped up all our plans, was in fact, nature telling us who was truly
in control, and who was just a player in the grand scheme of things. Afterall, thanks to us and our collective
decisions, we unkowingly made it possible for a tiny snake and all its future babies
to be fed in a lush environment that was comfortable and free of its predators. It seems nature always has the last say. Alright, AC Family wasn't this all just mind
blowingly crazy? If you enjoyed watching this video and want
to help us keep making more, please remember to hit that thumbs up button, leave me a comment
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for you here, if you would just like to watch extended play footage of the eerie creatures
living in this terrarium. And now it's time for the AC Question of the
Week. Last week we asked: Name one preparation that
needed to be done before moving the Dark Knights
into the terrarium. Congratulations to Ant Nation who correctly
answered: Putting baby powder
on the tube so they can't get to the meshο»Ώ. Congratulations Ant Nation, you just won a
free ebook handbook from our shop! And in this week's AC Question of the Week,
we ask: Name one way in which
earthworms help in an ecosystem. Leave your answer in the comments section
and you could win a free ant tshirt from our shop! Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we
upload every saturday at 8AM EST. And guys we are less than 10K subscribers
away from 1 Million subs. This is crazy! Let me know what you want us to do for our
1 Million Subs video! It's ant love forever!
This is quite a neat video.
If anyone isn't familiar with AntsCanada, he has converted a lizard terrarium into an earth-based formicarium.
He has quite a complex ecosystem in the soil as well, including springtails, snails, mites, worms, leach-creatures, etc.
Seeing all of the different organisms interact, alone and with the ants, gives a very interesting view of the microcosm that really appeals to me.
You can see the snake just when he is looking for it !
from 15:51 to 16:20 you see it moving in the up-right corner of the terrarium. I cannot believe he did not see it while working on the video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLS81RBALMY for the capturing and what he did with it.