This is going to be a long read because I am going to give a very detailed answer as I believe this is the perfect time to make my plans and interests known to the world and perhaps make a connection with someone who can help me with my plans.
In order to answer this I must first give you my take on life. I see life as a meaningless march to your death, life has no purpose, no meaning nothing you do matters when you die, however, it is up to you to give your life a meaning and a purpose. You have to find out what truly makes you happy and then make it a part of your life.
Now that I have said that I can get more onto topic.
I truly enjoy animals, fish mainly, and as such I want to chase that love I feel and wish to show it on a grand scale. I have been forming this model for years and now I have finally perfected it into a final image, I can see it so clearly that I have even been able to plan out small details roughly. I want to be surrounded by animals, I want to dedicate all my time to animals, I want my life to be animals and as a result I have set my life up to accommodate my plans. I have started taking classes to become a welder as they make a lot of money, there is a need for welders in every state so I will be able to find a job wherever I settle down in. I can not stay in georgia because they have several animals marked as illegal that I refuse to not keep. Freshwater stingrays are the main fish and piranhas however if I can get enough of the other animals on my list then I will be ok with not being able to have piranhas and it also applies with other animals on my list that I want to keep. One of the best parts of being a welder is that even though I will be stationary instead of being a traveling welder is that I will still make a good bit of money and I don't have to take out a huge student loan just to make a measly 50k a year working a white collar job. It also has been what I have chosen because I can use the skills I have gained as a welder to help my in my goals animals wise. What is important to me in a job is that I am stationary, make good money, and I don't have to be in debt or in college for an extreme amount of time. There are other positions that fulfill certain parts but don't fulfill other parts such as being a doctor so you can see why I chose welding as it checks off the criteria I have listed.
Now for my vision, what see is a 20 acre minimum plot of land in a state that I have decided is best for me regarding animal keeping laws. On that land I see a metal building starting out. Around a 50' x 50' steel building that has been modified to suit my needs regarding my animals. That will be the beginner building I will keep my animals in. You see, the animals I wish to keep are not only fish, no, I see aquatic life, rodents, small mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, and more. I don't wish to keep one or two of each group, no, what I see are rows and rows of enclosures for reptiles, multiple large cages for various birds, lots of cages for rodent species, dozens of tanks dedicated towards insects, lots of hand built enclosures for small mammals which are composed of mainly feline species that are not your average household cat although I will have some various types of household cats which you could think of like bengals in that general area of thinking, and finally dozens and dozens of tanks for aquatic life. I have even found two different aquatic snakes which I have put into my plan. As you can see my vision is not small and that 50' x 50' building won't last long so I will end up building another building, perhaps it will be bigger than 50' x 50', it just depends on how large I have grown, how fast I have grown, and what animal group dominates the building. The end goal with the steel buildings is to have one dedicated to fish, birds, reptiles, rodents, small mammals, and feline. As you can see that would be 6 buildings, 6 50' x 50' buildings, that's a lot, as I go through life and end up actually doing this I may find a certain animal group required less space or more space. To maximize space and cost I can have the next building built smaller or bigger in order to group 2 animal groups together in the previous building and move the other animal groups into the new building. On the other hand one animal group may be dominating the space I have so I can move that animal group into the new building and leave the other animal groups in the old building. Regardless I will have at least two separate buildings for animal groups. Now that I have gotten the steel buildings out of the way I can get to the outside enclosures. I also envision at least one large outdoor enclosure for birds which will be sheltered obviously and have them protected. I see multiple enclosures for various feline species and small mammals. Think fennec foxes, porcupines, ocelots, servals, prairie dogs, you get the idea. Each enclosure will be tailored towards the animals specific needs obviously. There will be several large enclosures for animals such as rabbits and chickens that will provide me with a steady stream of meat for myself and the animals that eat meat such as that to help keep costs down. I see several ponds that have various ducks and a few swans. They are there not for food but as animals to be taken care of as the other animals are. The ponds will be at least half an acre in size. I believe that is all regarding my animals.
Now for another part. I see a very large section of my land dedicated towards growing vegetables, the types of vegetables I grow will be dictated by what my animals eat and how efficient they are at growing. If I can get plant A that yields a 20 pound harvest every year or plant B that yields a 5 pound harvest every month and the same animals will eat both then it will be more efficient to go with plant B. I will be saving money by growing my own vegetables and raising my own meat so that will cut down on feedings costs a lot if I do it on a scale large enough. I have looked into other ways of making money and the ways I believe I will go is youtube, instagram, twitter, blog, patreon, and a few other things that I am forgetting. Those will help me get the money I need in order to keep the zoo running. I will not rely on those platforms solely as I am not guaranteed to do well so I will reach out to find a few sponsors once my internet presence is high enough. They will help a lot. I will learn photography and how to make and edit videos in order to make myself appealing and I will put out ads on youtube to begin with once my videos are regularly being uploaded, they are loved by my subscribers, and my channel is big enough. Eventually I will grow so big that even through maximizing efficiency where I can, fish are going to be efficiencized the hell out of with automatic water changes, bigger tanks to combine more species in less space and other ways, that I will not be able to do everything myself so I will have to hire some employees. That will pose its own set of difficulties however I will overcome them and make it work.
You may be thinking "how the hell does he think he is going to pay for all this?". You see, I did mention becoming a welder however that's not all. I am going to start investing soon and play the long waiting game so I can have a good bit of money when I start taking things into full throttle. Before I get very serious I am going to acquire a dozen or two rental properties, the way I am going to be able to do this is I am going to maximize my savings by basically living like a broke college student except smarter. I've done my research and I know of a lot of ways I can cut costs and maximize my money as to save the most. I will live on the bare minimum and take all the overtime I can along with various ways to make money online until I can buy my first rental property in cash. I'll fix it up if I have to and maximize its efficiency with solar panels to name one thing. I'll restart the cycle again except this time it will be faster with the added income from the first rental property. I'll keep doing this until I'm satisfied with the amount of rental properties I have. I will eventually have to hire a management team to manage my properties for me since there will be so many. They will take out some of the profits I get from my rentals but at a certain number it balances out and I still make a very nice profit.
In order to prove I am serious I will let it be known that I am or have researched land lording, the cost of concrete for concrete pads, the cost of steel buildings, the costs to insulate them and make them suitable for my needs, costs of bulk salt for salt water aquariums, excavators, a custom made or modified car to go pick up tanks from california that is the most efficient for my needs, and more topics that I can't remember at the moment.
Now, for my short term goals. I am trying to figure out how to best and most efficiently incorporate plants into my tanks in order to help with maintenance, getting started in photography, breeding fish in general, getting involved in dwarf shrimp and plants to help offset some of the costs and get more experience, and a few others.
I don't really have and short term breeding plans except for "wallace's shoehead catfish" fish wise. Long term breeding my goal is to breed the following.
Lake turkana senegal bichir
shorttail nurse shark
gulper catfish
spiny monster pleco
marbled granite knifefish
brown african knifefish
centipede knifefish
There are plenty of others but I can't remember them all. Whenever I see a fish or animal I love all I want to do is breed it so more people can enjoy the animal.
I forgot to say that I will be breeding various animals, mainly from the small mammals and felines, to help offset the costs of running this operation. At the time being there is no plan to make this an official zoo, it will be a hobbyists zoo of sorts however it may change and become a legitimate zoo in the future. I do plan to make my youtube account called "Brian's Zoo" even if it doesn't become a legitimate zoo.
There are a few people that I look upto who have helped me come up with my vision or give my inspiration. The ones that I can remember off the top of my head are as follows
The Irwin family
Big rich and his son from Ohio fish rescue
The maker of the 50,000 gallon tank on this site, I can never remember his username
thebiggerthebetter
RD.
These people are the reason I have my vision as intricate as I do, they have helped mold my way of thinking into the way it is, they have further enhanced my love of animals, I couldn't have found my vision if it was not for them.
There is one final project I have in mind but it's even more crazy then everything I have listed above so I'll keep it to myself for now as if I were to share it I would be laughed out of mfk.
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