Goodbye (For Now)

Hello everyone,

It is with a very heavy heart that I announce I have decided to all but leave the hobby. 😢 I have been dealing with some serious stress and anxiety issues for the past few months, and quite a bit, (though not all) of this stress seems to stem from my invertebrates.

It's always a little stressful caring for something, and occasional failures are inevitable in this particular hobby, usually the good outweighs the bad though, at least enough to keep you hooked. But as of late, the stress this hobby has been causing me has far outweighed the happiness it brings me. I'm not sure whether this is due to my increasingly negative and anxious state of mind, or simply because I have too many invertebrates, either way something needs to change, or I will snap.

I have gotten rid of most of my invertebrates now, the only species I plan on keeping are my Perisphaerus pygmaeus, Panchlora sp. "White", Porcellio bolivari, (Oniscus asellus "Mardi Gras Dalmatian"), and of course my female Grammostola porteri, Rosie, she was my first invertebrate pet. Who knows though, I may end up getting rid of everything but Rosie, time will tell.

I am, and forever will be, extremely grateful to those who have given me advice and helped me in this hobby, those who supplied me with many of my inverts, and those who were simply great to chat with! Some people I'd like to give shout outs to are Alan Jeon, Kyle Kandilian, Peter Clausen, Gil Wizen, Sebastien Marcaillou, Brandon Maines, Orin McMonigle, Joshua Campos, Leo Dutkewych, AlexW, Erin Munkascy, Tyler Hedlund, Nicolas Rousseaux, Laura Mae Riepl, Bo Syroney, Alan Grosse, and many, many more. I consider you all close friends, and am grateful for this crazy, bug filled journey we've been on. 😊

I'm not going to be very active on any of the forums anymore, same goes for Facebook, and there will be a long hiatus on this blog as well. I hope to start posting again here one day, as I don't plan on getting rid of all my inverts, but I need some time to find myself again, and get all my priorities straight. I really just need some time to myself at this point. This is probably the last you'll hear of me for quite awhile.

Thanks so much for following this blog for so long, I really hope I'll get the chance to start writing again here one day in the future! Goodbye for now everyone! 😉

-Tristan
(AKA Invertebrate Dude, AKA Hisserdude, AKA TJ Ombrelle)