Mikey Bustos is a singer, songwriter, actor, comic and YouTuber (1.87 million subscribers) greatest identified for his AntsCanada YouTube (6.86 million subscribers) channel (his movies have garnered near 1 billion views) that discusses all issues ants. The social media star (greater than 10 million followers throughout the varied social accounts), who grew up in Canada studying REPTILES journal, Nationwide Geographic Journal, and different publications, has constructed what can arguably be described as one of many largest, if not the most important, and most elaborate house ecosystem vivariums in his house in Cavite, Philippines.
Mikey and his Savannah monitor. Photograph courtesy Mikey Bustos
Every of the 4 biomes; Pantdora, the cloud rainforest ground; Orchadia, the tree high cover; Hydromeda, the wetlands; and Verdantia, the grasslands, options all kinds of natural world, from reptiles and amphibians, to invertebrates, birds, fungi and vegetation.
Bustos turned fascinated with bugs and inexperienced anoles, as a younger child in Canada, and his love for creepy crawlies has grown from there. REPTILES journal spoke with Bustos on the constructing of his vivarium system, which contains 4 separate biomes, all related.
REPTILES Journal: You talked about that you’ve got been a reader of REPTILES for the reason that 90s whenever you first began protecting reptiles. What reptiles did you begin protecting and at what age?
Mikey Bustos: Sure, pre-internet, pet care manuals and REPTILES journal have been the go-to sources for reptile information and husbandry. My first reptiles have been inexperienced and brown anoles, which my dad purchased me for Christmas after begging for ages. I should have been round 12 years previous. This rapidly escalated to an iguana, different anole species, Asian grass lizards, veiled chameleons, uromastyx, bearded dragons, savannah screens, and a home gecko, launching a full blown obsession for reptiles that has lasted into maturity. The anoles have been my gateway herp!
The enclosures are huge. Photograph by Mikey Bustos
RM: Identical as me! How has reptile protecting modified for you over the previous couple of many years, and what got here first? The ants or the reptiles?
MB: Reptile protecting has superior a lot for the reason that 90s. Again within the day, I needed to mild and warmth my reptiles with bulbs and spotlamps purchased at my ironmongery shop. Now the herp enterprise has grown so large, there’s a product for almost each side of reptile care. It’s wonderful to see!
I additionally watched as uncommon color morphs of reptiles over time turned extra generally out there as breeders started producing the reptile rainbow!
For me, naturally the bugs got here first, as they have been best to entry as a child. I began protecting ants and different critters from my yard and the close by park as early as 7 years previous. I used to be the bizarre child on the block all the time on my fingers and knees within the filth with jars to take stuff house, ants included. I might arrange all my bugs in containers with labels and create a BUG ZOO museum-style in my mother and father’ basement, which I might then present all my associates within the neighbourhood. Guess some issues by no means change!
Mikey has been into reptiles for years. Photograph courtesy Mikey Bustos
RM: When did the concept of making your cloud rainforest vivarium materialize? Was it from expeditions into precise cloud rainforests?
MB: Sure, having visited cloud rainforests over time, I had a good suggestion of how I might execute such a vivarium when the day ever got here, however what made me lastly determine to really begin a cloud rainforest vivarium was sheer curiosity. In 2023, after years of making targeted single-species ant farms of every kind, the one concept left to attempt was to deal with ants in probably the most naturalistic method potential: housing them in an ecosystem vivarium, mainly a bioactive setup on steroids. For the primary time, it might enable me to check ant behaviours of their purest type and uncover how they match into ecosystems, one thing you possibly can’t actually recognize in a conventional ant farm. With the bigger quantity of area and variety in niches, I might additionally home multiple ant species collectively, which in conventional ant farming just isn’t potential.
Mikey placing his designs to work. Photograph courtesy Mikey Bustos
To my shock, housing ants in vivaria allowed me to understand ants in an entire new mild, as for as soon as, I might see them working inside an ecological context, like seeing how they’re only a small piece of 1 large advanced ecological puzzle. As seen in my YouTube movies (youtube.com/@AntsCanada), I’ve been in a position to observe a few of the most insane ant relationships, together with mealybug farming for honeydew and interspecies ant rivalries! I additionally found peculiar ant symbioses, together with how some vegetation like Princess vines have extrafloral nectaries to draw ants to their foliage, which I can solely assume is for cover from herbivory or for ant poop fertilizer.
RM: Are you able to describe how you’re controlling the atmosphere in every of the three cloud forest vivariums? Are you able to talk about your use of UVB lighting, misting programs, heating (how does heating play out in a rustic just like the Philippines? Is it hotter or cooler the place you reside?) and different mechanicals that assist to recreate as a lot of a pure atmosphere as you possibly can?
MB: My Ant Room during which my vivariums are housed is SMART and local weather managed to the diploma. I reside within the Philippines so it’s sizzling 12 months spherical 25 to 40 levels Celsius (77 to 104 levels Fahrenheit) and normally 70-100% humid. Truly, in contrast to after I saved reptiles in Canada the place I wanted to have gear to maintain the reptiles heat and humid, the problem within the Philippines is to maintain the reptiles from overheating. A room with closed home windows and no air con can develop into an oven quick and kill all pets, ants included. My air con models activate to chill down the Ant Room, particularly throughout our scorching dry summers. The Ant Room is saved at a pleasant 22 to 25 levels Celsius (72 to 77 levels Fahrenheit) in the course of the day which creates a really perfect cloud rainforest temperature.
For humidity, the vivariums are geared up with fog machines that are additionally automated. It rains in all of the tanks, additionally automated, in addition to wind by way of followers, particularly in my new Grasslands Vivarium (my 4th vivarium).
Fog in within the enclosures is a recurrent taking place. Photograph courtesy Mikey Bustos
When it comes to UV lighting, I’ve a number of spots across the tanks the place reptiles (and now birds) can get their dose of UV from UV bulbs. However for warmth, reptiles will normally discover a heat spot underneath any of the lighting, near the highest display screen mesh, normally on driftwood. If there are floor dwelling reptiles, I’ll fixate lighting to shine by way of the aspect mesh. Reptiles within the Philippines don’t actually need to bask so long as these in temperate international locations. The truth is, basking lamps can rapidly kill a reptile right here when you aren’t cautious. There are additionally moments within the morning when pure daylight comes streaming into the tanks which I discover the reptiles like. It’s a fable that each one UV will get filtered out by home windows. Some wavelengths make it in (I’ve measured it!), particularly if it’s sturdy Philippine solar!
RM: Over the course of what number of years was the planning in your vivariums, and what was the length from begin to the place you’re at this time?
MB: I constructed Pantdora, my first large ecosystem vivarium, in late 2023. It took a number of months of planning earlier than that, principally understanding structural stuff
However by way of understanding the organic particulars of how an ecosystem tank would truly work, I really feel that required everything of my life’s information on animal husbandry and pastime expertise.
I first began protecting vivariums after I was an early teen, an idea I realized from the nice Philippe De Vosjoli (https://shorturl.at/IkKds), who authored a few of the greatest reptile care handbooks out there within the 90s. He had a chapter about vivaria in a e book he wrote about protecting inexperienced anoles, and that idea of protecting a number of species of reptiles/amphibians in a single enclosure, a group tank, fascinated me!
However understanding an ecosystem vivarium is a full step above group tank, as it’s incorporating full life cycles of assorted animals and vegetation, and many others, so an ecosystem vivarium required rather more information and expertise, with which I didn’t really feel I used to be prepared till 2023.
RM: What did the primary iteration of your cloud rainforest vivarium appear like?
MB: Pantdora v1.0 will all the time be my favorite. It featured an enormous ironwood stump as its centerpiece, flanked by asparagus fern, philodendrons, mosses, and vines. It was majestic, dioramic, and made for some wonderful creature viewing. The fundamentals are nonetheless there at this time, i.e. stump, a rock wall, however the forest inside took on a lifetime of its personal and adjusted regularly additional time, as nature does.
RM: What are the continuing challenges in protecting these ecosystems in concord?
MB: The most important problem is defending the ecological steadiness. Including creatures into the vivaria virtually all the time has repercussions on your entire ecosystem inside. Add too many predatory species and bug biodiversity goes down, add too many herbivores and plant biodiversity goes down, add the incorrect plant and plant biodiversity goes down. Both method, it’s an incredible option to study concerning the dynamics of ecosystems and the position totally different species play within the ecosystems they’re a part of.
One other problem has been protecting invasive ants out! Black loopy ants have been a ache since day one! I’ve to give you pure options to do away with them, from carnivorous vegetation, to trapping, to including rival ant species, to easily spot vaccuuming them up!
Mikey taking pictures some content material. Photograph courtesy Mikey Bustos
RM: How did you select what natural world went into your vivariums?
MB: For creatures, I might primarily go together with what was round my space, however wanna hear one thing loopy?
Mom Nature decides more often than not! The vast majority of the species have been truly seeded unknowingly into the vivaria by way of the decor, vegetation, and soil. The large stump in Pantdora, as an example launched an enormous marauder ant colony, a dwarf ant species, and an entire termite colony! I as soon as discovered a child flying Draco lizard in one in all my vivaria which might solely have gotten in by way of the driftwood contained in the setup!
After all, my information on the biology of assorted creatures additionally comes into full play, when deciding what creatures I do put in myself and when it’s time to drag creatures out.
I’m additionally a giant plant geek and so I typically select plant species I’m acquainted working with that tolerate the lights I’m able to present.
For any species, plant or animal, that I don’t have expertise with, I seek the advice of with skilled specialists for recommendation.
RM: How large are every of your vivaria? You point out in your socials of connecting them. Had been there any challenges in doing so?
MB: The vivaria vary from 1,000 to over 2,000 gallons of area. Sure, the vivaria (besides my newest one, for now) are related by way of glass bridges. It was difficult to work out these connections as I needed to work across the present buildings of my Ant Room, which was designed and constructed years earlier than I ever determined to create the vivaria. Fortunately, we had glass ground cutouts put in on the second ground, for higher distrubution of pure mild within the Ant Room, however this truly made multi-floor connection of the vivaria potential!
The wetland enclosure, designed to imitate a tidal wetland. Photograph by Mikey Bustos
RM: Do the vivaria occupy one room in a single ground of your own home within the Philippines, or do they primarily attain for the ceilings as seen in your social media?
MB: My Ant Room is constructed on the second ground of my house, and the Ant Room itself has two flooring. So the 2 flooring you see within the Ant Room in my movies are literally the 2nd and third ground of my house. It’s like a separate home constructed into my house. There’s a part of the Ant Room the place a internet ground exists and its there the place you possibly can look method as much as the roof of the Ant Room, in addition to the glass ground panels.
The underside ground vivaria virtually attain the ceiling, however the high ground of the Ant Room has a big vaulted ceiling, so there’s area for an entire different set of vivaria up there, if ever I run out of ground area. Haha!
RM: The place did your fascination with ants, ecosystems, and micro-worlds start?
MB: Positively childhood. I simply all the time beloved animals for so long as I keep in mind. As talked about, I used to be the kid all the time within the filth taking part in with bugs. I used to be all the time wandering into my members of the family’ backyards at household gatherings, amassing bugs in jars to deliver again house. I used to be a frequent customer on the public library, borrowing each animal, pet, and bug e book and journal I might get my fingers on. I additionally grew up watching nature documentary reveals narrated by the nice Sir David Attenborough, Nationwide Geographic Journal, books by Philippe De Vosjoli, and naturally, REPTILES journal have been my literary loves!!!
Mikey has been protecting reptiles since he was a child residing in Canada. Photograph courtesy Mikey Bustos
RM: What reptiles and amphibians are you at present protecting? And have all of them discovered a house in your cloudforest vivariums?
MB: The listing is kind of lengthy, however the herps in my vivaria are my senior Sorong inexperienced tree python, some home geckos, golden tree frogs, and a pac man frog. I’ve a child spectacled caiman who used to reside in my first vivarium however has since moved out. I additionally undertake and rescue, so I’ve a colony of iguanas, a red-footed tortoise, a Suriname horned frog, and different herps.
RM: Do you think about constructing different ecosystems—or was this a once-in-a-lifetime challenge?
MB: After all! The Ant Room is massive sufficient to deal with not less than 10 extra vivaria, and as soon as all full, I’ve different concepts in thoughts! These vivaria usually are not a as soon as in a lifetime challenge, however a lifetime challenge for positive, because it’s my private pleasure and pastime that I like sharing with different nature-loving individuals.
I need to say that I really feel so grateful to have the ability to do what I like, and it’s all because of the stable group supporting the AntsCanada channel, the AC Household, so I’ve made it my obligation to see simply how far we will take our nerdy little pastime, by offering a hub for us nature-lovers to study and uncover Mom Nature’s greatest saved secrets and techniques collectively, by way of these organic slices of nature inside glass, we all know as vivaria. I really feel creating these worlds is one in all my biggest life functions.
Let me additionally say how honoured I’m to be interviewed by REPTILES journal. As an avid reader of your earliest points, I by no means imagined one thing like this could ever occur in one million years. Thanks for being a terrific supply of knowledge and inspiration for generations of herp-lovers worldwide. You guys positive impressed me, flipping by way of your pages as a child, and this all appears like a full circle second being right here at this time! My reptile-loving coronary heart is so full!
