This week is a little light for incoming as we're not expecting a busy holiday week. Our office is closed on Monday and Tuesday next week. We will be back on Wednesday, packing orders for arrival Thursday and Friday. If you want orders packed on Wednesday you're going to have to send them in over the long holiday weekend. While the holiday week is always slow in terms of dollars, it's always crazy busy for packing because I only have half as many pack days as a normal week, and even if we're slow we won't be down by 50%. So there's no way I can take late orders on Wednesday. If your orders aren't here when we walk in the door than you're going to have to wait till Friday to receive your fish.
You're not going to see a Monday email so I've included the updated salt and reptile lists here.
In spite of the upcoming short holiday week I still got in some cool new items. I have chameleon whiptails in from Colombia. These are some of the biggest ones I've seen. They have a really intricate pattern. The color will change dramatically, hence their name. Sometimes they'll be nearly black and white, other times they'll show a less dramatic pattern like they look today. That pic's about an hour out of the bag, and it's during the day, so you can expect them to look better as they settle in. These are suckermouth cats but not strict algae feeders. You'll need to give them a wide variety of foods ranging from algae wafers to frozen and live inverts like bloodworms, mysis shrimp, and blackworms. It's not uncommon for these fish to thrive for months and then mysteriously die. That leads me to guess they may have nutritional deficiencies, so give them as much variety as possible to avoid that. They may also have long-term issues with water parameters that are drastically different than in the wild. They'll likely do better long-term in softer water.
Got in a new red paradise fish this week and they look great. Years ago 'red paradise' was a Florida fish that had slightly more red than normal. This is a very different fish. They look essentially patternless, with a sold red body. They do have dark fin edges that contrast nicely with the red. These aren't even half grown right now so I expect they're going to look even better as they get more size. Husbandry and temperament isn't any different than any other paradise fish. They're super sturdy. Often considered aggressive or semi-aggressive, but that's usually reserved for conspecifics and similar species. They're usually fine with other non-gourami species.
Please give a call if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Joe Hiduke Sales Manager Nautilus
Red Paradise
Albino Paradise
Tetras and Relatives
I have pacus in stock from Colombia. This is a terrible fish for you to sell, but you're probably going to buy them anyway. I can't make my boss not order these but I can push for all of you to be responsible retailers. Please tell your customers how big these get, and if you're going to sell these please commit to taking them back when they outgrow your customers tanks. And most important, make sure you tell your customers to never release these. I understand this fish isn't going to live through the winter almost everywhere in the US, but letting them freeze to death isn't the right way to deal with them outgrowing their tanks. I have plenty of oversized medium silver dollars that are much better tank fish, and I have a few (~10 pieces) red hooks.
For more appropriate fish, I have some new Colombian rainbow emperor tetras. Wild fish so they're a little mixy in size. All but the smallest fish are already showing color and look great. Still have plenty of gold tetras, some green neons, and a few ruby tetras.
Florida silvertips got a bit bigger this week and a lot brighter. I know this is a weird fish to get excited about but the color on the males is fantastic. They're cheap and they're exceptional, if you order this week you should get silvertips.
Some other Florida fish that look good include big longfin blushers, good sized glowlights, orange von rios, longfin black skirts, Colombian tetras, and longfin serpaes.
I'm back in stock with black phantoms. If you didn't get these this week it's because I put them on the new fish list prematurely, they're getting a few days of prophylactic treatments before going out. They in my pack room now and look really good. Some other Asian farm tetras that stand out include hujeta rocket gar, albino Congo tetras, ember tetras, and decent size black neons.
Baby Pacus
Rainbow Emperor Tetras
Silvertips
Glowlights
Diamond Tetras
Black Phantoms
Albino Congos
Ember Tetras
Barbs, Danios & Relatives
Import red panda barbs came in again this week. Size is pretty good. They're not exactly colored up yet, but they're close. Beautiful fish when they're fired up, and as a bonus they're not particularly nippy (although they get pretty big and are kind of rambunctious). Rasbora hets are in stock but they are tiny. Gold white clouds are imports this week, but they're good size.
Florida large tiger barbs are a little smaller this week, but I'm pretty sure I'm out of mediums so go with the larges this week. Rosy barbs are decent size, and red glass barbs are good size with great color. Black ruby barbs look pretty good. Zebra danios are big and super nice.
Red Panda Barbs
Brilliant Rasboras
Albino Cherry Barbs
Livebearers
Florida-bred brick swords are the best swordtail this week. They're big, with good color and plenty of males. Florida marigolds and marigold wags are pretty as well but they're a lot more mixed in size. Velvets and velvet wags are clampy today, ask on Wednesday how they look. Import pink comets are pretty but nearly all females, with a few males that don't have swords yet. Firecracker swords are big and beautiful, and vampire swords look pretty good too.
Koi guppies are beautiful. I don't know what makes this a 'koi guppy', but it's really nice. It's basically a red panda but the white is more of a super pale blue/silvery white, and some of them have some black speckling. A few other guppies that stand out today include tricolor dumbos, turquoise blue tails, blue panda dumbos, pink tux, and red Endler's.
Still have candy cane micky mouse platies and they're still the prettiest platies. Some other platies that look good include bumblebees, dawns, assorted XL, and all of the highfins.
Restocked on balloon lyretail mollies. They balloon body males their lyretails look even bigger in proportion to their dumb round bodies. Black lyrertail sphenops might be even a little bigger this week. The biggest ones are showing some orange in the tail.
Brick Swordtails
Marigold Swords
Firecracker Swords
Koi Guppies
Balloon Lyretail Mollies
New World Cichlids
Red-spot gold severums are back in stock. They're a little smaller but still showing nice red spots. The background color on these Florida fish is a brighter yellow than I've seen with imports.
Green terrors are finally here again. The size isn't great but they're certainly acceptable, and starting to show a little color. Jacks are back in stock and OK size as well. Firemouths are still very small. Red devils are big, and the 3" are over list size. Pink convicts are decent size as well. I've got about a half-dozen Honduran red-points left, all young adults now since they've been growing up here.
For less common fish, I still have some 5" blue umbies that are getting some blue on their faces. Got one big istlanum as well. Small snook, grammodes fox cichlids, and septemfasciata are all nice too.
Got limited numbers of ~5" threadfin heckeli. Super impressive when they're this big. The regular size is running big too, close to 3".
Amapa red-back angels came in Monday. These are similar to the better known Manicapuru red-back. The Amapa are slightly less red but significantly less expensive and also a lot more available this week. They're well started Florida-bred fish. This is a big angefish so they still have plenty of growing to do. Great looking fish for your customers with the patience to grow them up.
Lots of discus in from Singapore. I've got a couple sizes of blue diamonds, plus some 2" red turqs and leopards. Nicest ones may be the oversized 2.5" blue turqs from Hong Kong. They've been here a few weeks.
Red-Spot Gold Severum
Green Terrors
Medium Salvini
5" Heckeli
Amapa Red-Back Angelfish
Blue Diamond Discus 2.5"
Red Turq Singapore 2"
Leopard Discus Singapore 2"
Platinum Parrots They are all this small
Old World Cichlids
Moved a surprising number of Africans this week, but I still have plenty of inventory. Best looking fish on the farm right now are the hybrid 'red-stratus' haps. This is a rostratus hap with fantastic color, bright blue/green bodies with red/orange stripes. This group is great size and super impressive, and if my staff had gotten a better pic last week I'd be sold out already. The large male jungle haps are very nice too, smaller than the redstratus but a fair bit cheaper.
The medium male Florida peacocks are on sale again and a great value. Lots of blues, a few yellows, some red-sided types, some dragonbloods, and some albinos. All of them showing color naturally, not from methyltestosterone. There are also some crazy pea-hap types with great color and neat patterns. In addition to the mediums I have a very limited number of large mix that are even bigger and brighter.
Victorian black velvets should be good to go this week. They look great, but they are hyper aggressive, more so than any other Vic I've seen. Zebra obliques look great too, and they get along pretty well with each other, and with mbunas or peacocks. Versatile fish if you're not uptight about mixing Africans from different lakes.
Avanti yellow-tail zebras are still the best looking mbuna. The goldbar elongatus are a close second. Red-head macs and patricki are both oversized and very nice, get them now before they get tossed into a medium mix. Albino auratus, cobalt zebras, albino zebras, Likoma elongatus, medium daktari, and medium fancy mix mbunas are all very nice too.
Still have plenty of Tanganyikans, maybe more than I've had at one time. I have super nice Kipili reganis and Gombi transcriptus, a couple of the most popular and most colorful (for Julis) varieties. Sunflower helianthus get brighter every week, they look amazing. Medium Karambe moori and Maswa duboisi are both fantastic, way bigger than the little imports.
Red-Stratus Hybrid Hap
Medium Male Florida Peacocks
Black Velvet Victorian Haps Mostly males right now
Likoma Elongatus
Bubble Gum Socos
Lake Turkana Jewel Cichlids
Gold Kribs
Buffalo Head Cichlid
Catfish and Loaches
Lots of plecos to pick from this week. And mostly the same plecos so their fins get a little cleaner every week and their bellies get a little fuller. I did get new snowballs, some royals and some green phantoms this week. Still have lots of galaxias vampire plecos in a couple sizes, pretty good numbers of Colombian zebras, and some very small Colombian orange seams and blue phantoms. Might have three or four big blue phantoms too.
Wild cory cat selection is very, very limited. I have new skunk cories and the size is great but not sure they'll be ready to go by Wednesday. I have lots of pygmy cories too but that's even more iffy. Ask your rep on Wednesday. On the bright side I do have some tank-raised cories. I've got pretty good number of sterbai cories that look good, and I still have some albino paleatus that are super nice and also the cheapest cory cat available right now.
New striped raphael cats are very nice size. Banjo cats are good sized too. Bumblebee cats are all over the place in size. I have new ones that are tiny and last week's that are huge. Colombian sharks are good size, and I have a handful that came in way oversized.
I still have a few foxface cats and zamora cats sitting around, plus plenty of talking cats. All of these fish are nice size, not 2" fresh imports.
Florida-bred angelicus/eupterus cats are in stock again and look great, neat maze-like pattern. Jumbo eupterus are huge, with big banner-like dorsal fins. Indo petricola are very nice too, but much smaller than any other Synos here.
Still have big Sewellia loaches. Chinese robusta botias look great. Highfin banded loaches are growing up here. Perfect size to look good in a tank now, and great pond fish when they outgrow their tank.
Colombian Snowball
Green Phantom Pleco
Blue Phantom Plecos
Galaxias Vampire Pleco
Sterbai Cory
Albino Paleatus
Striped Raphael
Angelicus/Eupterus
Jumbo Eupterus
Robusta Botia
Highfin Banded Loach
Other Fish & Stuff
I have a few types of honey gouramis in stock this week. The gold honeys came in Monday and look really good They are small and peaceful, and make a great tankmate for small rasboras, tetras, and similar fish. They'll get more gold as they grow, with courting males developing a dark chest that contrasts with the yellow body. The red honeys are the same fish but red instead of yellow, and they're a little bigger right now. Florida sunset gouramis are in stock again but smaller and not real colorful. Opalines are back in stock too, small but otherwise nice. Blues and golds are both a little bigger and nicer than the opalines.
Rainbowfish selection got a little better this week. Yellow rainbows are finally in stock and look pretty good. They're far from mature and will get a lot brighter but they already have some color. Boesmanis are brighter than usual at this size, but like the yellows they have a lot of growing to do and they'll get a lot more color. Goyder River trifasciatus, praecox, kamaka, and crimson spots are very nice too. Turquoise are still small and not very bright.
Silver arowanas came in a little smaller this week but still look good. They're way past yolk-sac size, and probably an easier sell this time of year than the bigger ones that are a lot more expensive.
A few other fish that look good include peacock gudgeons, humphead glassfish, Florida gar, 8" royal clown knives, 3" clown knives, brown ghost knives, ghost sharks, and 3" redtail sharks.
Magenta mystery snails came in this week. Order these, they're pretty and they're not in box stores so more likely to get filled. I might have enough blues and ivories to get through the week as well, and both of these are big and nice.
Gold Honey Gouramis
Red Honey Gouramis
Opaline Gouramis
Yellow Rainows
Boesmanis
Goyder River Trifasciata Rainbow
Silver Arowana
Humphead Glass Fish
Redtail Shark 3"
Magenta Snails
SALTWATER/CORALS
The Saltwater stock-list gets sent out on MONDAY afternoon.
In saltwater, we offer tons of top-of-the-line corals. If you need really nice frags to sell for $10-15, we've got you covered. If you want a $400 show piece unique Australian brain corals, we've got that too. Tons of the coral frags are aquacultured in-house and are named lineage pieces of various SPS and LPS. Import frags that are MADE in-house are also available, and are great options to get slightly bigger pieces that customers want like torches, hammers, blastos, acans, zoas, etc.
Effective February 1, 2019 Pictures for freshwater DOA claims are REQUIRED. DOA credits will no longer be approved if there are not accompanying pictures. This is to see the bag sizes, water quality at arrival, if heat/ice packs are present, etc.
Just snap a picture of the bag with your cell phone as you're putting the bags in the tank to float and that will work and should only take literally 10 seconds per bag that contains losses. These will help us to figure out why they arrived DOA and how to prevent it in the future. It is preferred that you email the pictures to your rep, but you can also text them into your rep as well. Thank you for your understanding and assistance.
SALTWATER DOA POLICY: All Saltwater DOA need a clear picture of the fish out of the bag on a cooler lid from your shipment and emailed to your sales rep the day or day after your shipment arrives. Any fish lost in shipment will be credited if you follow that easy instruction. Fish that die overnight are not creditable unless they arrive in very rough condition (basically dead) and you notify us of the condition with a clear picture of the issue the day it arrives.
