The Antquarium

Having a pet in a cramped Toyko apartment can be a serious pain in the ass, so desperate to have something apparently a fair number of Japanese are snapping up the Antquarium, which is basically an ant farm filled with a gel that's both food and tunneling material for the ants (which are not included). Says one happy Antquarium owner, "As I live on my own, I wanted to have pets that are easy to take care of," and that he, "wanted to feel close to nature." Only in Japan could a big glass box filled with blue gel be considered nature.

[Jay @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Ants just aren't cutting it with me.... where's the version with tiny robots?

Would be kinda cool on my desk though.

[jwardell @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

This has been in Brookstone stores for a while
http://www.brookstone.com/shop/product.asp?product_code=426288&search_type=search&search_words=ant

[cyb3rllama @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

A classic case of Nature vs. Nurture.

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I was given one of these in 1996. They're pretty neat, but the ants still all die after a couple of months.

[Xarro @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

do the japanese know that the definition of 'pet' is: something you can actually... you know, pet!

what kind of bond can one create with an ant?

[Zer0cool @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

where can u get enough ants to fill up that thing?

[d @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

http://www.ihaveanidea.org/spots/entries/00000104.htm

A bit off topic, but very funny.

[Joel Leo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

My ants are working hard, but I was so sad when I had to go to work and could not see them digging. So I set up a webcam to track the work they did while I was at work. http://www.corvinedesign.com/news.php the link to the Antquarium Webcam is on the right hand side. take a look. I love this thing.

[inspector Clay @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

My ants started digging galleries and did some crazy things (like going to a drive-in!). Here is the colony's blog :

http://fourmi-bleu.blogspot.com/