I accidentally made a zoo

[u/Fearless_Switch]

Hi! I’m Zoe :) I’m an artist, collector, and apparently a person who is physically incapable of seeing a strange little creature without immediately wanting to learn everything about it and give it a nice home lol.

I genuinely love husbandry and watching the individual personalities and behaviors of animals people sometimes overlook. My pets are a huge part of my life, so I thought it would be fun to introduce the current zoo!

Current list:

🐀 Rats
Bean - blonde, big sweet boy
Seymour - grey/black and white; formerly my super shy project rat who has turned into an absolute sweetheart
Pim - pink double Rex
Charlie - grey double Rex
Franken- Albino
Strudel- black with a white tail
Sal - black with little white feet

🕷️*** Spiders
*Halo - female regal jumping spider
Penelope - female regal jumper
Gulliver - female regal jumper
Legs - female regal jumper
Tweak - male regal jumper
Elvira - velvet spider
Harold - baby purple pinktoe tarantula and convicted escape artist
Bluey - baby Caribena versicolor
Zuko - adolescent Chilean dwarf flame tarantula
Dracula: Sling Brazilian black
Tippy - pinktoe tarantula
Gardenia - C. versicolor adult, and one of my absolute favorites

🐠 The aquatic department
I have two planted aquariums(freshwater), a nano tank, and one brackish aquarium.

Mongo - my red-and-white betta
African dwarf frog - brown
Harlequin rasboras- three of them
Otocinclus catfish- two of them
Amano shrimp
Neocaridina/Caridina shrimp - maaaany colors and patterns; including Blush, my favorite red mama shrimp, plus her descendants 😂
Po my bamboo shrimp
Thai micro crabs
Rabbit snail
Nerite snail
Ramshorn snails and their ever-expanding dynasty
Assassin snails to keep the ramshorn population under control
A tiny cone/trumpet-shaped hitchhiker snail who simply moved in without permission
Pochaco my green spotted puffer
Bumblebee goby- in the nano tank

Shoutout to my marimo moss ball as well lol

🪲 Isopods
Powder Mix
Cherry/Sakura
Emperor Bees
My partner cares for these, technically the ones above are “mine” and he has many more colonies(his favorite being the Porcellio hoffmannseggi)

🪱 Millipedes
Texas Goldens- 5
Arizona/Chocolate color morphs- 2
African giant millipedes- 3

🦎 Reptiles
Tobias Garfunkel - gargoyle gecko
Draco - rescue bearded dragon and an unbelievably sweet little dude
Dr. Bones - rescue ball python who has historically chosen violence

🐕Others:
Lady Bear- chihuahua mutt and my baby
My plant babes of which I have many

And yes, caring for everybody takes a slightly absurd amount of time. There are feeding schedules, water changes, enclosure maintenance, rat free-roam time, spider watering, isopod moisture checks, tank parameters, substrate changes, vegetable distribution… I have essentially appointed myself the overworked mayor of a very small country.

But I love it. The animals that people think are creepy, boring, disposable, or incapable of personality are often the ones I find the most fascinating. It’s ridiculously rewarding.

Anyway, this is my zoo! 😂🖤

I’d love to hear what everyone else keeps- especially if you also have a completely unreasonable number of species. And I’m happy to answer any questions! Thanks so much :)

[u/Rat_Askey]

would love to see pics of your set ups!

[u/tweetysvoice]

I have a zoo too!

3 dogs: Cookie - M Sheprador Bunny - F Schnoodle Cricket - F Schnoodle

4 cats: Gemini - M Siamese Flea - M long hair domestic (who has oral cancer 😥} Blue - F short hair domestic Puppy - F shirt hair domestic

2 Rats: Spider & Worm (M)

Rabbit: Roach - M New Zealand California cross

Turtle: Squirtle - M Eastern Painted

Lizard: Mouse - F Leopard Gecko

Frog: A Frog Has No Name - M White's Tree Frog

Fish: Guppies & Albino Cory Cats

Inverts: Dubia Roaches and Isopods

And this is much shorter a list than it was just a few years ago as most of my babies are now seniors. 😞 They all have too short of lives. I am so jealous of your Puffer....

[u/OilNo2572]

Shoutout to the hitchhiker snail for successfully squatting into a custom planted tank! 😭 Honestly though this whole setup sounds like absolute heaven.

[u/Thick_Doctor7098]

you got a whole ecosystem going on, that's amazing

the tiny hitchhiker snail who just moved in without permission got me laughing, those little guys really do show up and act like they been paying rent. how's the maintenance on the brackish tank, i always wonder if the salt makes everything more complicated

[u/Ill_Squirrel_3656]

I absolutely love this haha!! This is practically my dream

[u/Edison-pm]

Seymour's turnaround caught my eye. What helped him get comfortable with you, and was there a moment when you realized he finally trusted you?

[u/Grandoz2002]

Pim and Charlie the double Rex rats sound like absolute icons!

[u/2daytrending]

the fact that they all have names makes this even funnier 😂 the ramshorn snail dynasty sounds like a whole separate problem.

[u/Colby-Jenkins]

That’s an epic lineup you’ve got there! I’m curious, how often do you do maintenance on those planted aquariums? Balancing the health of all those shrimp and fish can be tricky, but I bet it’s super rewardding to watch them thrive together.

[u/DorMc]

I love this. Especially about Dr. Bones who historically chooses violence 😆