New user, long time bug fan

Shon2

Second Instar
Hello everyone! 

My name is Shon and I'm relatively new to the roach world. I never intended on keeping roaches as pets, but my feeder colony has grown rather friendly, and the little friends they live with have become some of my favorite animals to keep. I have a few pets: 

Moby (my rescued leopard gecko whom I started growing roaches for), Bambi (terrier mix dog), and my 20g fish tank, which has had a number of rescued fish in it and currently has my last 3 African dwarf frogs -Pumpkin, Jr, and Quasimodo, as well as a ghost shrimp.

My roach colony has 2 species, Madagascar hissers (2, both male), and dubias (2 males, 5 females, and about 30 offspring right now). 

I have no intention of growing thousands and thousands of roaches anytime soon, I'm currently homeless and have been keeping my pets at a friend's house while things get figured out, but I love the little guys very much and would do anything to keep them all happy and healthy. 

I am a full time student at the Otis College of Art and Design, and as of last year, I am officially a part of their toy making department. Before this, I was an entomology student, and was essentially forced out of a career when Trump defunded the EPA. I no longer had access to the opportunities I was presented with, and I had no way of paying for the classes I was set up to take, so here we are! I am happy with where I'm at now, but given the chance, I would drop all of it to go back to my truer passion, entomology. 

I used to volunteer at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and have nearly 1,000 hours of service under my belt. I've worked with sharks, rays, horseshoe crabs, octopuses, sea stars, and many other animals you probably dont see every day. It was an incredible experience to take part in, and I try to visit whenever I have free time. They also have several kinds of invertebrates used as program animals - roaches, tarantulas, centipedes, millipedes, and many others have been used as examples of how to go about maintaining a healthy ecosystem and responsible pet ownership to the crowds. I think you guys would appreciate all the love and support roaches get from that area specifically! We've changed quite a few people's minds about the kind of respect these animals truly deserve. 

I also have my art posted publicly if anyone is interested, I'll probably be replying with some photos once I get things resized correctly, as well as some photos of my pets if anyone is interested. 

I post art on DeviantArt (Shon2) and Twitter (SharkyShon2) if you wanna see! Some of it is intended for mature audiences, so if you're not keen on that, stick to Deviantart and keep the mature filters on. 

Anything else... 

I'm 20 years old, trans, a furry, weeaboo, vegan, and I love Taco Bell 

That's about it! I can't wait to meet everyone here and start interacting more with the community :)

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EDIT: Found some photos to share! :D

Current pets: 

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Animals I used to keep: 

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How my tank used to look (my last fish killed a lot of pants, he used to rip them out of the ground lol)

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Animals from the Aquarium: 

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Sorry if y'all are overwhelmed with all the photos, but I wanted to post some art too! 

I tried to avoid anything NSFW, but these are some of the more popular pieces from social media/ some of my personal favorites:

Originals: 

missy_hissy_by_shon2_ddcoels-pre.jpg


val_by_shon2_ddc2jxc-pre.jpg


commission_for_riverandwally_by_shon2_db1l3k8-fullview.jpg


Animal studies: 

mosasaurus_reconstruction_by_shon2_dcmstzy-fullview.jpg


spiny_lobster_live_study_by_shon2_dceua10-pre.jpg


dimetrodon_by_shon2_dcd4gix-pre.jpg


oops_all_bones_by_shon2_dc9wjfg-pre.jpg


School work:

alexis__final__by_shon2_dd5pgrn-pre.jpg


life_drawing_final_by_shon2_dcu293j-pre.jpg


arm_study_by_shon2_dctn4yj-fullview.jpg


Fanart:

queen_of_the_monsters_by_shon2_dd8ccrh-pre.png


ebirah__monster_of_the_deep_by_shon2_dd80ufl-pre.png


stinky_eyezon__by_shon2_dd94yox-pre.jpg


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gyarados__uncolored__by_shon2_dcoufhn-pre.jpg


mothra_tattoo_design_by_shon2_dcnd7xi-pre.jpg


 
Welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy it here! :) Sorry to hear about you being forced out of your career choice, our current president has no regard for the importance of science, nor our environment... -_- I hope you are able to pursue entomology as a profession again in the future! Love the art by the way, very nice! :D

 
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Welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy it here! :) Sorry to hear about you being forced out of your career choice, our current president has no regard for the importance of science, nor our environment... -_- I hope you are able to pursue entomology as a profession again in the future! Love the art by the way, very nice! :D
Thank you so much! :D It's nice to be welcomed by someone so prevalent in the community. I've been looking around here and there for a few days and you seem to help out just about everywhere! I can't wait to get to know everyone a little better. 

And thank you for the warm wishes! I try to avoid getting political when I don't know how people will react, but yeah, this president sucks. The last thing we need right now is someone with such little recognition for the benefits of science and the protection of our environment! :'D Maybe one day they'll listen to us, haha 

 
Thank you so much! :D It's nice to be welcomed by someone so prevalent in the community. I've been looking around here and there for a few days and you seem to help out just about everywhere! I can't wait to get to know everyone a little better. 

And thank you for the warm wishes! I try to avoid getting political when I don't know how people will react, but yeah, this president sucks. The last thing we need right now is someone with such little recognition for the benefits of science and the protection of our environment! :'D Maybe one day they'll listen to us, haha 
Haha yeah I might spend a little TOO much time here TBH... 🤣 But it is my favorite community, much prefer this kind of format to Facebook... 

Me too, as this isn't really the place for politics, but let's put it this way: We won't be around to talk on this forum for long if our government and the rest of the world's governments don't start taking climate change seriously, ASAP! 😅 

 
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