Hacienda del Dorado

The Hacienda Del Dorado as of November 2019.

## Inhabitants

 Golden Empire (February 2017 - January 2019)
 Second Jaw Breakers (June 2019 - present)
 Spring Cleaners
 Emperor Sapphire (March 2018 - November 2018)
 Unnamed Axolotl (November 2018)
 Aphids
 Isopods
 Millipedes (May 2017 - present)
 Parasitic Mites (January 2019 - present)
 Unnamed Gecko (January 2019 - present)
 Unnamed Bufonidae Toad (January 2019)
 Unnamed Narrowmouth Toad (January 2019 - November 2019)

The **Hacienda del Dorado** (also known as the **Golden Estate**) is a terrarium that houses for the then Golden Empire, some Spring Cleaners, the Unnamed Aphid Herd, the Unnamed Isopod Herd, Unnamed Millipedes, Emperor Sapphire and some Pitcher plants that for the most part live in harmony, but was left abandoned after the mite infestation that needed all the any colony to be evacuation from the terrarium to the newly AC Outworld. But was repopulated by Second Jawbreakers afterwards when all the remaining mite infestation Golden Empire Individuals had eaten by the group of death sprite frog.

## History

The Hacienda del Dorado was first introduced in February 2017 as a new set up for the Golden Empire. Following the mite-infestation that plagued the Golden Empire, and an unsuccessful run of lemon slice therapy, a twitter poll was created to determine what the Empire's new set up should be. By popular demand, it was decided that the Empire should move into "a huge planted terrarium" (other options included "a brand new Hybrid nest", "an Omni Nest Large", and "a naturalistic ACOutworld").

Raymond Mendez, creator of museum ants exhibits and ant expert, had suggested that ants in the wild tend to be able to combat the type of mite infestation the Golden Empire was suffering by simply moving away from the mites. This had not been possible in the Empire's previous set up, a standard Dry Outworld and Moist Nest captive ant colony set up. The Hacienda del Dorado was thus planned to allow for the kind of movement that would allow the yellow crazy ants and the mites to coexist, without the mites entering the deutonymph state that caused them to hitch rides on the ants.

The move was successful, although the mite infestation did not immediately subside. It was in the Hacienda del Dorado that the previously 3 Queen Golden Empire colony became an 8 Queen colony, following its fusion with a 5 Queen supercolony of the same species.

The location was renovated in February 2018 by adding an artificial waterfall and additional plant with a supposedly female Electric Blue Crayfish to maintenance its population overgrowth. In May 2018, the terrarium introduced a new male Platinum Crayfish to mate with the Blue Crayfish. However, it turned out unsuccessful as she rejected him and he almost fell victim to the Golden Empire. It was then revealed that there there were two reasons behind this happening:

1. they were two different species
2. the electric blue crayfish was actually male.

On October 2018, the location was renovated once more by adding more plant with new soil allowing the colony more digging in additional with the complete make over the Golden Springs after relocated the Emperor Sapphire to somewhere after it had grow oversized in for the replacement with the Axolotl.

On January 2019, the terrarium are infested with parasitic mite and were separately to quarantine it by using the Rhino Beetle of Hypoaspis Mites to contained it. The Golden Springs is removed from inside for allowing the population reborn again. However, it was not enough as is now still got 3 Queen left within the colony. Followed by next week, the colony was removed from within the terrarium and put into the AC outworld for allowing hypothesis mite to feed upon parasitic mite. But was still not enough to get rid of them and worry that it will spread to another colony.

In the following week, Mikey release a toad nickname: angel of death in a code name: Operation Cloverfield to eat all mite infestation ant with leaving a single one of it. However, it failed and exchange it with another toad, that is very effective to dealt with the crisis.

On June 2019, the Paludarium was repopulated by the Second Jawbreakers in co-existing with the frogs after the blood sucking infection mite of the remaining Golden Empire had relinquished. However, the peace does not last long as the Pharaoh Ant Colony had return back to Mikey Bustos room and invaded the Golden Estate starting a new war inside the setup following the both war of Garden of Eden prior two years ago, that lead to the annihilation of the First Titan, but was repelled as they only raid the Paludarium for Spring Cleaners the food source of Jawbreakers.

On November 2019, the terrarium had been renovated into Vivarium, most notably is the red pineapple thriving on the ground.

## Set up

Hacienda del Dorado is a self-sustaining ecosystem of its own, in which plants and animals (ants and otherwise), collaborate.

The Hacienda del Dorado is housed within a 75 gallon tank, and originally contained a variety of rocks, soil media, plants and three driftwood pieces to provide a comfortable living space for the Golden Empire.

### Plants

The tank first contained the following plants:

* Air plants, or *Tillandsia*

* Some bonsai trees

* A Blue fern bush

* A ficus plant vine, *ficus pumila*

Later on the following plants would dwell on the Hacienda:

* April plants, which survived incognito after being discarded from the first time the set up was built
* Pitcher plants, introduced to control the exploding population of the Golden Empire

### Lighting

The Hacienda del Dorado was set up on a windowsill, receiving plenty of natural light during the day. In addition to this, the tank sported two full-spectrum fluorescent tubes, as well as four spot lamps, to create sunning spots over the plants.

These lighting fixtures would later prove to attract insects to the Hacienda del Dorado during the night, which provided additional food sources for the Golden Empire whenever these wandering visitors were caught by the ant colony.

### Animals

In addition to the ants themselves, and the mites that came with them, the Hacienda del Dorado has housed:

* a group of Springtails, the Spring Cleaners
* an Unnamed Aphid Herd
* a group of Unnamed Millipedes, introduced to control the booming plant growth
* an Unnamed Isopod Herd
* Emperor Sapphire, introduced as a natural form of population control
* a group of false toad frog, introduced to feed any remain mite-infestation ant

## Gallery

The Hacienda del Dorado in February 2017.The Hacienda del Dorado in August 2017.The Hacienda del Dorado in February 2018.Hacienda del Dorado close-up after the establishment of the pond.Hacienda del Dorado on February 2019.Hacienda del Dorado on June 2019