Which Monster Rearing Did You Invest Into And Why?

Which monster rearing did you invest into and why?

I'm trying to get a general idea of which monster rearing pets people are making and if it's worthwhile.

Which monsters did you raise and how do they help you with your goals in game?

Thanks!

I just did all of them (or at least will be all once i finish the last 10-15) since its not that much effort, and its nice to be able to buy most the items.

I thought you could only have 2 at a time? or do you mean all of them on multiple characters?

As you interact with monsters in your garden, books will gradually become available for purchase (in exchange for bayld or gil). These books will eventually allow you to raise up to 4 at once.

As for raising them all, you can free up a slot by dismissing a monster once you've collected the totem from each of its stages of growth. Totems are key items that will permanently unlock the monster's shop items and allow you to set its cheer effect even after it's left your garden. Only one cheer can be active at once though.

You can have more pets as your rank increases.

Here's some stuff I did:

Sheep family: All sorts of Leathercraft stuff, especially Imperial Tea Leaves
Baby Eft: Fishing Skill Gain for an Acc+ vorseal
Limascabra: for Denizanasi to make Mercury
Blue Seamonk: for Istavrit for Alchemy skilling
Colibri Chick: for Beehive Chips to make Beeswax
Behemoth: for Behemoth Hides
Jumbotender: Movement speed cheer
Dragon family: Tons of stuff, including Wyvern Scales and Dragon Blood for Crimson armor synths, emergency Cashmere Wool/Siren's Hair from Wyrms, and the best melee cheer available right now (STR+4 DEX+4 Acc+4 from Blue Wyvern).

I would just look at the cheer bonuses:
http://ffxiclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Monster_Rearing

I'm not really interested in collecting items (and you will get junk a lot if you do, but also randomly nice stuff).

The skill gain bonus are ok (better for crafting than battle skills).

Alter ego bonuses are meh.

Combat bonuses are also underwhelming.

the CP bonuses are the best IMO, still trying to get Jumbotender for movement speed.

In anycase cheer bonuses are free, (well you need to feed it, but its cheap (usually there's a few expensive evolution foods) and only takes a couple min. per day max). You can only use 1 at a time, and they costs shining stars to switch.

So whatever suites your fancy but the 3 reasons would be: item collection, cheer bonuses or just the aesthetics of having x monster lumbering around your garden.

I did it for the CP Bonus and it was rough at first but last month really helped with evolving:

Rabbit-> White Rabiit
Urghanite-> Limascabra
Adamant-> Great Adamantoise (mistake)
Behemoth-> Behemoth King (in progress)
Bomb-> Djinn (in progress)
Sabotender-> Jumbotender (in progress)
Dragon-> Lunar Wyrm
Dragon-> Blue Wyvern (in progress)

After I get the cheers for Jumbotender and Djinn, I'll move on to Snoll and a new Adamant.