Oh no! My pet fire ant colony is in danger. But I won’t panic now as this can be fixed. I woke up this week to a rather shocking discovery
when peeking into the City of Ashes, metropolis home of our beloved and expanding fire ant
colony named the Phoenix Empire. Everything seemed normal, the workers were
all active, the brood pile, massive as ever, and the queen Ember Empress tucked snugly
in her bed of ant babies. But just when I figured all was well as usual,
I saw this. The colony’s primary water reservoir had
strangely turned pink! Oh no! Something needed to be done immediately, you
guys! I was familiar with this pink water, and it
wasn’t good news. Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the
BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy! So what is this pink water, how did it appear,
why is it bad, and what do we have to do to get rid of it? AC Family, I’ll be getting to all those
answers in just a moment, but I must say, in all my years of ant keeping, this ominous
and mysterious pink water has only happened to me once before many years ago, and if you
are planning on keeping pet ants, you might want to take note of this in case it happens
to you. Also, guys, an important decision is coming
up and I’ll be needing your help today, to make a major decision for this colony via
a VOTE at the end of this video, so please stay tuned for that! So if you’re new here, the Phoenix Empire
is a colony of fire ants that I grew from just a single queen ant some 10 weeks ago. Together on this channel we cared for them,
watched them grow, and evolve, even making their first kill last week. They’re dear to us and are set to become
a great and mighty fire ant colony of millions in the not so distant future. But if you’ve been following the channel
for awhile, you’ll know that sometimes we’re met with challenges and crises that Mother
Nature throws at us, threatening the lives of our dear ants that depend on us to keep
them safe. Wild ant invasions, parasitic mite plagues,
and catastrophes like that periodically occur, forcing us to take certain actions to save
them. Our Golden Empire, for instance, a mighty
yellow crazy ant supercolony, who were almost exterminated by some blood sucking mites last
year, were thankfully saved by way of quarantining the colony with predatory Hypoaspis mites,
which thankfully ate the bad mites off the yellow crazy ants. For all of you who’ve been asking for an
update on them, rest assured that today the Golden Empire is healthy again, and bouncing
back in numbers. So now about this pink water. Though I’m not certain what exactly causes
this pinking, I do feel it’s either some kind of microbial outbreak in the water, i.e.
some bacterial, fungal or other microcellular organism-involved contamination, or some substance
that is produced by such a microbial outbreak in the water, causing it to discolour. Either way, I feel this is not a good thing. Ants should have clean fresh water at all
times, so the Phoenix Empire will be needing a new water source and reservoir right now. And here, AC Family, is where I can show you
guys how to properly make an ant test tube setup! All you future ant keepers, let’s get into
ant keeping tutorial mode! First, I’ll be needing these two AC test
tubes from AntsCanada.com. These AC Test Tubes are designed specifically
for us ant keepers. They’re extra long with lots of space, and
have these small ridges that keep them from rolling off a table giving your ants the nightmare
roller coaster ride of their lives. So, before doing anything else, the first
step is to make sure your hands and instruments are as sterile as possible. Test tube setups need to be super clean to
minimize microbial outbreaks from the get go. You can wear gloves or wash your hands followed
by a hand sanitizer, which I’m hoping all of you out there watching have by now. Next, it’s important to wash and disinfect
all instruments used. This is our pokey! Then, it’s important to use clean, bottled
water. I like to fill it to this rim which is placed
on the AC Test Tubes to help guide you. Then, you place a cotton ball inside and with
a pokey the key is to press down quickly so you don’t have bubbles. And so… Down we go fast! Boom! Shake away any remaining droplets and there
you have it: a perfect test tube setup! While we’re at it, I also wanted to create
a new sugar-water test tube setup seeing as their current sugar-water test tube cotton
has also gone foul with mold. This time, I’m mixing in honey and water
together. Done! Popped in some AC Test Tube adapters, opened
up the top of the Fire Forest, and attached the newly made test tubes to the setups, dumping
any ants that happen to be in the old test tubes inside the Fire Forest to rejoin the
colony. Immediately, the ants checked out the new
living space attached to the City of Ashes and rejoiced at the new fresh water source,
as well as their new sugar source. Haha! Look at how excited they are to make the new
discovery! Now, as for the colony living inside the pink
water test tube, I’ll leave it to the ants to move out on their own. At least now, the colony had a clean source
of water to drink from again. When they’re ready, they’ll make the emmigration
to the new test tube setup or perhaps this... Guys, it’s now time for our final order
of business. Get your voting fingers ready, AC Council! In last week’s episode, I asked all of you,
to vote for the next grand attachment to the City of Ashes, and turns out you guys voted
saying you wanted the Phoenix Empire to finally receive their very first formicarium, i.e.
a proper ant farm for them to nest in. And so, guys, behold the potential real estate
options for the Phoenix Empire: Please watch carefully and help me decide which to choose
for them. First, before you I present what is called
a Hybrid Nest Mini. It’s a smaller nest for new beginning colonies
their size, that comes with a cover for the Phoenix Empire’s ultimate dark-loving comfort,
with chambers and tunnels already cut out for the ants with a section for hydration
through the floor which is refilled by way of an inner tub. The pros of this nest is visibility is superior,
and we’ll always be able to see everything going on in the nest whenever we want, from
brood, to workers, and the queen. Cons are, we won’t be able to see certain
natural behaviours taking place, like the ants building tunnels on their own and ant
hill construction. Next option, we have an Ant Tower Small, which
contains an area inside in which we’re to fill with digging medium for the ants to actually
physically dig into and construct tunnels and ant hills close to the glass. A red film that keeps the ants thinking they’re
in the dark seeing as they can’t see red light, peels off for when we’re observing
them. Hydration also happens from below via a hydration
ring. Pros to this option, are we get to finally
watch the fire ants dig and build tunnels, which I am certain the ants have been eager
to do, as I see they’ve long been attempting to dig and create a nest in the Fire Forest. As well, in the Ant Tower we can finally introduce
some symbiotic, beneficial soil creatures like springtails and isopods which eat their
garbage and poop. Cons are, this is midway to an actual terrarium,
so once the Phoenix Empire moves in here, visibility of certain things may be a challenge
due to the fire ants being so small, and there’s a chance we might never see the queen again
as they’ll have an easier time hiding her here. And so, AC Family, you guys never let me down
with these votes. Both picks make great and worthy first nesting
sites for the Phoenix Empire, but now that you guys know the options, please take a moment
to VOTE here, for the Phoenix Empire’s next royal home. Thank you AC Council for your input. Whichever option wins, will be officially
added to the City of Ashes in next week’s episode, and I’ll be sure to film their
reaction to the new space you’ve chosen for them! I appreciate that you all have been so involved
with caring for these precious creatures from the very start. I do feel like we are taking care of the Phoenix
Empire here cooperatively, as we marvel at their growth and rise to their fire ant glory
years! I wish these fire ants could know and understand
how many of us, watching from around the world are rooting for them, learning from their
evolution, rejoicing at their milestones, and as we’ve done today, fixing their environment
in the hopes to optimize their chances at success. Like the ants do, it’s all been a beautiful
team effort so far, wouldn’t you say? Thank you all for watching, and being part
of this epic journey. I appreciate you for quietly supporting the
ants, and I’ll see you again next week, guys. It’s ant love forever! AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode? Be sure to tune in next week, when we give
the Phoenix Empire their very first proper nest, so if you haven’t yet, do SMASH that
SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON now and hit ALL so you get notified at every upload, because
I believe notifications seem to be broken but the Youtube support team is on it. Also don’t forget to hit the LIKE button
every single time including now. It would really mean a lot to me, guys. Thank you! AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie
for you here, if you would like to watch extended play footage of the Phoenix Empire in the
City of Ashes. We got lots of relaxing footage of the ants
as well as fun footage of the ants discovering their new test tubes. Also, just a note: It’s anting season, and
nuptial flights start in the Northern Hemisphere this month! Be sure to visit AntsCanada.com for all your
ant keeping and collecting gear shipped to you in a special package from our ant-loving
facility in the USA, so you can get the most out of your ant keeping experience. We also offer full email support if you need
our help! Visit AntsCanada.com today. And now it’s time for the AC Question of
the Week. Last week, we asked: What is the name of the toxin
fire ants inject when stinging? Congratulations to Nora Garcia who answered: Solenopsin Congratulations Nora, you just won a free
Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our shop! In this week’s AC Question of the Week we
ask: Why do we need to push the cotton in quickly
when making a test tube setup? Leave your answer in the comments section
and you could also win a free e-book handbook from our shop! Hope you could subscribe to the channel as
we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST. Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and
SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video, to help us keep making more. It’s ant love forever!
I'm surprised how many people voted for the Ant Tower.