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Hey guys, it's been a little while since I posted here, I have some somber news to share. I have been dealing with some severe anxiety and depression issues for the past few months, and I kinda broke down a couple weeks ago. This hobby has unfortunately been causing me a lot more stress than happiness lately, possibly because I have too many species. It's also taken up almost all of my available time, and has prevented me from participating in any of my other hobbies or spending quality time with my family. So, after some soul-searching, I have decided to all but leave the hobby. I have gotten rid of almost all my invertebrates, and only plan to keep half a dozen species for now, (might even get rid of those though, time will tell). I will also be very minimally active here on the forums, so this is probably the last you will hear of me for a while. I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who's helped me along the way by supplying me with invertebrates, giving me husbandry info and advice, and those who just gave encouraging words. I will forever be grateful to all of you, and this forum in particular will always hold a very special place in my heart! Sincerely, -Tristan

Sorry to hear this, HIsserdude - you've been one of the most helpful and knowledgeable members of this forum and certainly helped me with a few problems I had with my colonies when I started keeping roaches. I hope all goes well and that with a new balance to your life, as Krissim Klaw said, you don't completely lose your obvious love for these little creatures. I can certainly sympathise with the time commitment - having started off with just three hissers about 18 months ago I now have thriving colonies of 6 stick insect species and 3 hisser species, all of which are reproducing like mad and eating me out of house and home as well as taking a lot of my time! All the best and hope to see you here back again some day with a new enthusiasm!

I've seen this happen more than a few times over the years. With inverts the workload can really creep up on you because initially each new acquisition doesn't seem like it will be much of a time sink. Eventually they start adding up, colonies reproduce and grow larger, and before you know it you are spending more time doing busywork sort of care maintenance versus actually enjoying your bugs. I hope you are able to rekindle your love for inverts as you pair down.

like i said, you will be missed hopefully we will see a great return!