Thinking of a Lifestyle Change

[digital-audiophile]

I learned a lot from you teachings when I first started out last year. Pets are a lot of work, I understand your motivations.

As others have mentioned, a small little nano-cube would still give you a bit of reef keeping without all the work.

I keep a little 5 gallon FW tank on my desk and it is very little work but brings me and my coworkers a lot of joy during the day.

[Beverly]

Appreciate the comments and suggestions from everyone

The more I think about it, a clean break and down a completely different road is where we are headed. It actually feels good to be on the other side of the decision, though when time comes to part with my friends, I'm going to be very sad.

I have already started down the new road. It's a good road, with plenty of creative stuff to keep me challenged. I'm going to continue making videos, this time of the little fuzzy toys I've been collecting. The first one I made is on youtube.com, and some of you have already seen it. For those that haven't.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCTwrqC176w

I will be creating stories in the new videos for my 21 month old granddaughter who has life-threatening allergies to milk, eggs and peanuts, with less severe allergies to a few other very common food products. Good thing she loves vegetables, fruit and meats of all kinds.

Anyway, shortly, I will post my system and livestock for sale, and hope it will be bought by one person to avoid the hassle of parting it out. PM me if you'd like to stop by and see everything. I'll be happy to give you a guided tour

[Skimmerking]

Mom you can't get out of the hobby who will i bug when i have a problem...

Follow your heart.


Michael

[BCOrchidGuy]

I used to keep Shaftails and Zebras as well as Cordon Bleu's. I loved their singing especially the Shaftails.

What ever you decide we all wish the best for you and hope you'll keep in touch if for no other reason to let us know what freedom is like.

Doug

[justinl]

I wish you the best wherever you find yourself. You've contributed greatly to this place and I have learned quite a bit from you... even if we have never met!

good luck!

[Cap'n]

Grandkids, eh? Understandable.

Think you should hang on to a couple little things, though. Otherwise you may regret the complete lack of animal company and find yourself on the road back to what you once had. Besides, if you do decide you don't even want a nano and a small cage its easy enough to get rid of those too.

Time is the most valuable thing you have. I'm excited for you and look forward to mamking the big lifestyle decisions in my future.

You'll still be around here though, right?

[Beverly]

Thank you for the kind words and for the suggestions....

We moved a few years ago. At that time, we had a 180g reef, but sadly had to give it up due to the move, though we kept our finches. A few months after the move, I missed having a tank. Reefkeeping was all I knew back then, so I sneakily set up a 7g bowfront nano. It was so cute that when I found a 2.5g bowfront nano a few weeks later, I again sneakily set it up, too. Later, I did a 28g bowfront with H. whitei seahorses. My poor husband has been through so much with me and my reefs

Anyway, fast forward to the current decision. I have more than enough to do now. I have movie sets to build, props to build and buy from far away places and places close to home, story lines to write, video to shoot and edit, accompanying music to create, and of course a granddaughter to play Grandma monster and Rebecca monster with

A small cage with finches, IME, is not the correct way to keep these kinds of birds. Have done nanos to death. Need all the extra space in various rooms in our apartment condo for new endeavors. Am looking forward to having my den free of stacks of salt. The pantry and several cupboads will be free of test kits, additives, extra heaters, finch paraphernalia etc. The master bedroom will no longer have the new saltwater mixing garbage can and associated equipment. Like, man, it's gonna be a brand new condo, and I can hardly wait to get the space back again.

But I'm sure we will go through pet withdrawel. It happened to some extent when we found our ball python a new home late last year. But we haven't looked back from that experience, and I don't expect we'll be looking back longing at the time when we had all our pets.

I'm sure I will visit Canreef from time to time, if only to post my new videos and to check in on my friends on the board. Besides, I'm still gonna have to sell my stuff here and make it to 4,000 posts