Hey Everyone,
If I were an Uruk-Hai Warrior from Lord of the Rings, I’d say “Looks like Colombia is back on the menu, boys!” We had a bit of a scare last week when our Colombian suppliers couldn’t get permits for fish to leave the country, and we were told their equivalent of the FWC was cracking down on exports. Luckily, this week both shipments came without a problem, so it sounds like they figured their stuff out for the time being.
From this Colombian import we got plenty of cool stuff along with the fish you all need every week. The main thing are probably Otocinculus. It would be great if someone in Florida could figure out how to breed 20,000 of these a month for us so we didn’t have to rely on Colombia, but until that day comes we have to get them all from Colombia. Along with Oto’s, we should have a decent restock on a couple different cory catfish, farlowellas, raphael catfish, and pictus cats.
For the more oddball type stuff, Red Pikes are back, and super nice red coloration. I know they’re not the cheapest fish, but they’re very impressive looking and very hardy. Pinktail Chalceus are also a great oddball that doesn’t get too big and are quite inexpensive. Flagtail Prochilodus also restocked at about the 5 inch size with great color in the tails.
From the far-east region we got plenty of cool stuff this week as well. Probably the coolest new thing are Thai Micro Crabs. We’ve had them before and they’re shockingly popular. They’re very, very tiny, so don’t expect a fiddler crab sized animal, they’re literally smaller than a fancy shrimp. But they’re perfect for small nano tanks and are true freshwater crabs that LOOK like a normal crab. Very cool. Tiger Badis are also here to join the Scarlets that we had last week. Mono Sebae are back for the first time in ages, a cousin to the Mono Argentus that we regularly get.
Dwarf puffers got restocked and while not particularly new, I feel like I need to point them out every time since they’re probably a top 5 most popular item from the far-east. There’s still a surprising number of stores that aren’t ordering these, and I’m not sure why. They’re a fairly peaceful little puffer, and can be kept in groups no problem, so people looking to keep them typically will buy 5 or 6 at a time from you, making them a super great seller.
Check out the pictures and writeups about the specifics below and give your rep a call if you have any questions
--Steven
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| Red Pikes are back in! As red as I've ever seen them, and these always hold up great. They can be mean to each other, but usually get along pretty well with other fish that are too big to swallow whole. |
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| Silver Arowana are back too. Solid 4-5 inch, and well past the egg-yolk stage that we refuse to bring in. I've said it a million times, but you should not be buying the baby ones for super cheap from other suppliers. Those things have a crazy high mortality rate before they've absorbed their yolk. |
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| Flagtails were still on the list this week from the last batch that came through, but they did run out right before we got the new Colombia shipment back in. So if you ordered them this week and got scratched, I just wanted to make it clear these are new fish that arrived Wednesday night. |
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| Pinktail Chalceus have always been one of my favorite South American oddballs. They're not aggressive, and stay small enough that virtually anyone can keep them. |
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| Got a fresh batch of Melanistus Cory from Colombia this week. I think it's been 4 or 5 shipments since the supplier filled this species for us, so they've been absent from the list for a hot minute. Size is great, and they seem to have shipped pretty well, so they should be good to go for this upcoming week of sales. |
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| Got a handful of new Green Phantom plecos. Check list for sizing, I'm not sure if these are going to be considered medium or large. |
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| In addition to the big guys up top, we also got plenty of smaller Royal Plecos as well. These are a staple fancy pleco for the hobby for a good reason. They're nowhere near as "randomly-die-ey" as many of the other fancy types. Give them some driftwood to munch on, and plenty of meaty foods along with algae wafers or vegetables and they'll be good. |
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| Thai Micro Crabs are here! Emphasis on Micro. These are the biggest one's I've ever seen in person, and they're still a fraction of the size of a fingernail. |
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| Turkana Jewel Cichlids are back for the first time in a year or so. These came from Indonesia and even at about 1.5-2 inches are already showing plenty of color. Once these get into breeding mode, they turn solid bright pink. First time we've had these at this size and the price is great for what you get. |
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| Mono Sebae are here for the first time in ages. We get Mono Argentus pretty regularly, but Sebae are a little less common. These get good size (dinner plate sized) and can be kept in brackish or full saltwater setups. They are also fine in pure freshwater while they're young, but this species really does need at least some level of salt in their water to live their best life. |
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| Black Tiger Badis are back and bad-ass! They're mixed sex, and you can see the difference here pretty well. The females are loaded with eggs, you can see them through their skin, and ready to breed. Several males can be kept together no problem, since they're such small fish they have a quite small territory that they claim. Put them in some java moss and you'll have babies in a week. |
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| Galaxy Rasboras also came in very very nice again. Full adults, which of course doesn't mean they're big but they're as big as they get and showing their full adult coloration. These are the most popular nano fish for a good reason. |
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| Bumblebee Gobies are restocked. Keep in mind these are definitely brackish water fish, and do need some level of salt. They don't need actual brackish water, but an elevated salt level like you'd do for sailfin mollies would work great for them. |
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| Dwarf Puffers are back, and always super popular. it never ceases to amaze me that we can bring in 3,000 of these and still sell out in a week. If you're ordering 6 at a time, you're doing it wrong. This is a 50-lot type of fish. They're as cheap as tetras, and they're 100 times cooler than tetras. You'll sell a lot of them if you have a lot of them. |
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| Balloon Jewels are back for the first time in a bit. I will say I initially would have thought the "ballooning" of the body would slow these guys down a bit like it does most other balloon types. However it doesn't seem to affect them as they are just as aggressive as they normal counter parts. So give them plenty of space so they don't tear each other apart. |
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| We got a new size of the banded spiny eels we are calling "medium/large". They're in the 4-6 inch range like the zig zag eels of that description, but look way different. Most have an almost red color to them, very cool. |
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| Red Chili Oscars are back, and this is a great looking group. We only get about a dozen of these at a time, and they go quick. This group has super intense red and is slightly larger than normal (about 3 inches) |
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| Fire eels came in a little smaller than normal but still looking great. About 5 inches on this batch average. They grow fast if you feed them properly though, so don't skimp on the blood worms at feeding time! |
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| Delhizi Bichir are back for those of you looking for fancier polypterus than just the normal senegals. |
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| Panda Tetras are holding up well this week! These seem to like a little bit softer water than we normally can provide our fish that we hold, but the addition of a few almond leaves to their tank did the trick! I'd recommend the same for you in the store |
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| Green Fire Tetras should be a lot more popular. They're sort of like a neon with the red back half of the body, but have a GREEN front half, which is quite an unusual color in the fish world, surprisingly. |
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| Black Neons have been in short supply the past several months, but last week I don't think we ran out a single day, so I feel safe mentioning them now. Size is good on them, too! |
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| Normal Von Rio are actually looking better than the Orange Von Rio right now. Save a few cents and go with the normal guys this week while the Orange get up to size and start showing better color later. |
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| Penguin Tetras are still coming in absolutely huge. And they look great in a big group too, reminding me of a giant pencilfish with those black stripes through the tail. |
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| Albino Glowlight tetras are a beautilful solid gold color, and show up great in planted tanks. I'd recommend them highly over normal Glowlights. |
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| Longfin Serpaes are still one of the best looking tetras here. Consistently running very very nice. |
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| Large Red hooks got restocked again, size is a solid 3 inches. |
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| Blue Japan Endlers |
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| Red Endlers (my favorite endler by far) |
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| Flamingo Guppy |
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| Sunset MM Platy are running large |
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| Assorted Variatus are a relatively new addition to the list you might not have noticed before. |
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| Neon Black HiFin Variatus |
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| Mixed swordtails are super nice right now, even have some Koi in the mix! |
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| Velvet Tux Sword are my personal favorite sword, the rich red color and black tuxedo are awesome together. |
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| LT Dalmation Molly are nice again this week. |
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| Platinum Tiger Barbs are always a good choice for something to stand out with color in the community section. |
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| Longfin Tiger Barbs aren't the cheapest fish on the list, but they're much better looking than a normal tiger barb. |
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| Sparkling Gouramis are back in! These nano gouramis only get about 1.5 inches full grown. They're perfect nano-fish and have plenty of nice fluorescent blue down their sides and in the eyeball |
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| Red Paradise Gourami are back and have huge streamers on the males this time even though they're not fully grown yet. Very cool. |
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| Albino Paradise came in much bigger than normal. Normally I'm on the fence about them since they're usually quite small, but this is a solid chance to get some nice ones this week. |
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| Threadfin Rainbowfish are often overlooked, but make one of the coolest displays possible. Males flare open their fins when they get up alongside each other, and it's truly a sight to behold. You need some females around though or the males won't care to show off, so make sure you're not letting your customers just buy all the males out of your tank leaving you with females. |
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| 2.5-3 inch mix |
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| 2.5-3 inch mix |
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| 2.5-3 inch mix |
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| 2.5-3 inch mix |
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| 2"-2.5" Pigeon Blood |
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Central/South American Cichlids
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| EB Carpintis are still here. I'm honestly suprised they haven't torn each other's fins off yet, they're big enough that they're about to start getting territorial in our tank here and we might need to split them up soon. These make one of the best centerpiece fish for a big tank. They're not actually too aggressive towards other non-cichlids, so you can put one in with large tetras like LF white skirts or Buenos Aires and they're usually fine, but they'll have turf wars nonstop with other oscars, firemouths, jacks, etc. |
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| Gold Rams are FL bred again and looking awesome! |
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| 2" Red Pearl Flowerhorns are a great option if you want a Flowerhorn with more red to them. Our standard flowerhorn on the list are typically more blue than these are. |
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| Regular sized EB acara are back on the list and FL bred. Solid bright blue with red fin tips already even at this normal size. |
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| Rock Kribensis are still looking awesome, and I love that even the females in this species have tons of color. |
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| New albino Sunshine Peacocks are incredible. We got them by accident, but I think these will be in the regular rotation going forward. Great looking fish and very different from what is normally in the Florida mixed Medium peacocks. |
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| OB Electric Butterfly Peacock hybrids are still here and holding color perfectly. These shouldn't fade at all for you and should only continue to get better and better. |
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| I think we forgot to put a pic of these in the last couple weeks since we got them, but this is the "high yellow OB peacock". This is the LEAST speckled one in the tank, most are much more OB than this guy, but you can see how nice the yellow is on them. Very unusual color for OBs. |
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| Medium Mix Male FL bred Peacocks have some awesome fish in the mix like this bright blue guy here. |
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| OB Red Empress are always one of the top selling peacocks/haps even though they're one of the higher-end ones. The color is about as good as it's possible to find in a naturally colored animal. |
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| 2.5-3" Bushynose longfins are in for the first time in ages. These will probably sell out in a hurry but we might be able to get more if we sell out early in the week. |
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| Colombian Snowball plecos got restocked |
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| Zodiac Loaches are not something we get too often, so grab them while you can. These awesome looking bottom feeders are great for cleanup crew in freshwater tanks. They're not aggressive like some of the larger Botia loaches can get, much better suited for community tanks. |
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| Yellow Fire Shrimp are one of the brightest colored shrimp you can find anywhere. |
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