Colombia, Hong Kong, Singapore & Specialty Florida Stuff
OB Red Empress
News & New Items
Hey Folks,
Sorry this one is late, challenging week at work.
Had a big restock on fancy peacocks and haps this week. Got in several crazy OB strains, all with outrageous color. The big OB red empress are amazing. Great size and color. I also have a new OB 'stiletto hap' and I'm open to suggestions for a better name. These are hybrids with a high percentage of ahli/lithobates so they're skinnier and pointier than most of the peacock/Protomelas type crosses. Pretty good size and insanely bright.
L239 blue panaque plecos are in from Colombia. Haven't seen these in many months. In spite of the common name this is a Baryancistrus species and needs a varied diet. They are one of the least impressive fish when they get here, basically charcoal colored and no indication that they deserve their name. If you squint you can see some blue in the fin edges. Every week that goes by they get more and more blue. When they're fully settled in they're still a dark gray fish, but with a very noticeable blue sheen over the whole fish. Not easy to get in pics (at least on a phone camera) but the second pic below is an old pic of a fish that had been here for a while.
I have real Synodontis multipunctatus in stock now. These are Florida-bred fish and the real thing. There's a lot of import multipunctatus that are not exactly the right fish. Multis aren't fast growers, so a lot of far-east farms produce hybrids that look very multi-like but aren't 100% pure. I've sold them before and we always represent them as Indo multis that may or may not be pure. Most of your customers don't care about this stuff, but for the few that are concerned about it I have the right fish now. They get more silver as they grow and are one of the best looking Synos in the trade. Perfect tankmate for Africans too, although you probably want to get them a little bigger before putting them in a cichlid tank.
Please give a call if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Joe Hiduke Sales Manager Nautilus
L239 Blue Panaque
Blue panaque old picture. They get a little more blue every week.
Synodontis multipunctatus Florida-bred
Tetras and Relatives
Got in another batch of bleeding hearts this week. They're a tiny bit bigger than last week's. Also got in new ruby tetras that have decent color already and they've only been here two days. Still have lots of gold tetras too, and limited numbers of green neons and red phantoms.
New red hooks are about the same size as last week. Decent size with nice color. Medium silver dollars are still huge. Still have a handful of little pacus. They're really small but they won't be for long.
Far-east black phantom tetras are still outstanding. Big and showing great color. Some other far-east farm fish that look good include glass bloodfins, ember tetras, all-male Congo tetras, and hideous balloon red red-eyes.
Florida-bred orange von rios are fantastic right now. Great color and nice size. Also have pretty nice longfin serpaes. Keep in mind this strain does get a bit of combtail appearance on the fins. A few other Florida fish that stand out include longfin blushing white skirts, glowlights, silvertips, and bloodfins.
Bleeding Hearts
Ruby Tetras
Pacus
Black Phantom Tetras
Glass Bloodfins
Longfin Serpaes
Orange Von Rios
Barbs, Danios & Relatives
Florida-bred rasbora hets are the nicest ones I've seen in years. They're big and have nice red fins. Super impressive, you need to order them this week.
Large tiger barbs are still clearly bigger and nicer than the regular size. Albino cherry barbs are OK size (regular cherries are pretty small). Scissortail rasoboras are huge this week. Brilliant rasboras and giant danios are both nice too. Hoping for veil cherry barbs and more black rubies over the weekend, check the Monday email for an update.
Rainbow dace continue to be one of the best looking fish here. Size is good and there are plenty of spectacular males.
Got a few platinum green tiger barbs in from Singapore. They' a little brighter than the standard greens, and have more solid coverage over their body. Import gold neon rosy barbs are very nice. Good size and really bright. Red panda barbs are nice too although they're far from full color. For nano fish, I still have pretty good size erythromicron emerald dwarf rasboras, mabye a few kubotia green neon rasboras, and a handful of Asian rummynose. Biggest of the rummynose are just starting to show a hint of red, mostly very, very silver.
Rasbora Hets
Scissortail Rasboras
Gold Zebras
Rainbow Dace
Platinum Green Tiger Barbs
Livebearers
Restocked with plenty of swordtails. I have really nice Florida-bred greens that are big with lots of males. Some of them have some orange, so not exactly a traditional wild-type green, these are a little more colorful. Import pineapple swords are nice size too, although female-heavy like usual.
I also restocked on the fancier swords. I've got a new batch of firecracker swords and new vampire swords (the red lyretails). Both of them are good size and with exceptional color.
Platies that stand out include blue mickey mouse, bumble bees, and new candy cane mickey mouse. Neon coral highfin platies look fantastic.
Still have a handful of nice gold and green sailfin mollies. About an even sex ratio and pretty good size. Even better they're not clampy, and the males are showing off a lot.
Lots of great looking tricolor dumbo guppies in stock today. A few other types that look good include pink tux, red dragon dumbos, and turquoise blue-tails. And I'll have a bunch of new guppies on Monday.
Green Swordtails
Pineapple Swords
Blue Mickey Mouse Platies
Blue Lyretail Guppy/Endler Cross
Pigeonblood Guppies
New World Cichlids
Chocolate cichlids are back in stock again. Obviously with a name like chocolate cichlid they're going to be brown, but they will get nice green and purplish highlights as they grow up.
Got a few new eartheaters. Threadfin heckeli are in stock at ~4" and probably a little oversized. Already with great color. Medium balzani are around 3" and this is a great strain. They're showing a ton of yellow even at this size.
Medium firemouths settled in pretty well. The size and color is great. They are pretty fresh from ponds to the fins are a little rough but well worth the price. Regular sized firemouths have some color. Pink convicts and black convicts are both OK size. Green terrors are limited and pretty small. Green severums are nice size and look good.
Got more than a few lingering fish here, all medium to large size. I've got one Neetroplus, a couple zonatus, fenestratus, a chancho or two, a big sagittae and probably a couple others I'm forgetting about. I'm giving it my best guess on ID on a couple of these, please ask for pics.
The Florida-bred German blue rams that came in last week look a little darker today. They do look way closer to black in the tank than in the net. Medium German blues are good size and very nice. Import electric blue rams are nice too.
Florida-bred Philippine blue angels came in this week. Great strain but you'd never know it from my pic below. They're going to have to grow up a bit before you can tell what they are. Plenty of nice Florida koi angels and black angels in stock too. I still have 'red devil' angels but they do look a whole lot like koi angels.
Wild oscars are in stock again from Colombia. These have a slightly different pattern than the tank-raised fish. They're not as bright, but they look great when they grow up. Still have some far-east lemon oscars, chili oscars, albinos, red tigers, and a nice assortment in a couple sizes.
Electric blue acaras are back in stock again but they are tiny. These are far-east imports, not Florida fish. They're small and a little less blue than my local fish.
Chocolate Cichlids
4" Heckeli
Geo balzani
Medium Firemouth
Salvinis
Big fenestratus I think. Got a bunch of lingering ones and twos of some stuff that's grown up in our tanks.
German Black Rams
Medium German Blue Ram
Philippine Blue Angels
Wild Colombian Oscar
Electric Blue Acaras
Old World Cichlids
Got in three new hybrid OB fish. The OB red empress are big and some of the nicest ones I've seen here. Insane color on this strain. I also have a new 'OB arrow hap'. This is a crazy bright strain that's based on slim pointy ahlis/lithobates types haps. One of the brightest blue and yellow strains I've seen here. Finally I have a large size OB yellow peacock that is also super bright blue and yellow. They're all a bit pricey but they're all spectacular show fish with amazing color.
Also restocked on some standard medium male Florida peacocks. It's a nice mix but FYI it's very mixed, as in peacocks and peacock-leaning 'pea-haps'. Still some amazing albino sunshine peacocks too.
Mbuna selection is a little thin this week but some of the standards like snow white socos, albino zebras, Likoma elongatus, kennyi and red zebras look good. For fancier stuff, the yellowtail avanit zebras (that are probably an elongatus type not a zebra) are amazing. Not real big but nice color.
Got in a new batch of Kariza Kaiser Tropheus this week. They're fantastic size, especially compared to the pinkie nail sized import Tropheus. This is one of the most colorful types where lots of them will color up in a tank. The Ikolas are gorgeous when they're fired up but a tank of Karizas always looks better because they'll all be bright. In addition to the Karizas I still have very nice Maswa duboisi and they're on special this week, plus a few Karambes.
For other Tanganyikans I have beautiful little leuleup, Gombi transcriptus, and a few Kipili regani left.
Still have almost a dozen lingering Turkana jewels that look amazing. And a handful of buffalo heads and tinanti skinny buffalo heads.
OB Arrow Hap
OB Arrow Hap
Lg Yellow OB Peacock
Lemon Jake I have about three pairs left and I'll have a nice group price on the Monday email. Much bigger than the 'regular' list size.
Uganda Fire Hap
Zebra Oblique
Kariza Kaiser Tropheus
Leleupi
Daffodil Brichardis
Catfish and Loaches
Another week with lots more Colombian snowballs and zebras. They both got a little smaller this week but still look good. Lots more green phantoms this week too. I'm not sure they'res any difference in the size between the smalls, mediums, and larges, so just get whatever is cheaper. Also have new wild busynose. I sill have about a dozen each of the baby blue phantoms and baby L106 Colombian orange seams, and maybe a half-dozen super solid well established beacon plecos.
Wild julii cory cats are available this week. It's a box store fish so I rarely have enough to offer but there are a lot around this week. They're big and very nice. And I know they're not julii, they are trilineata same as they've been for twenty years. I have very limited numbers of arcuatus and maybe a few metae and punctatus too, but they're all very limited. Got lots of pygmaeus, if they hold up over the weekend I'll have plenty to go around.
A few other import catfish that look good include new royal farlowellas, fat granulosus cats, chameleon whiptails, four-line pims, Colombian sharks, and yellow-striped woodcats.
Tank-raised Synos are the highlight here. All Florida-raised and really nice. I have gold nigrita in stock for the first time in years. Beautiful fish that are solid light yellow with dark fin edges. Already good size and fat, they are super cool. Decorus cats are oversized and awesome, with nice big dorsal streams already. Every size of eupterus on the list is oversized too. Even the 3" size has long fin extensions showing why they're called featherfin cats. Hybrid eupterus/angelicus cats are gorgeous. They have a crazy labyrinth pattern in black and yellow. Finally I have a new hybrid Syno 'jaguar' which is very multi like but it's not pure.
Still have lots of redtail botias and Chinese robusta botias here and they're doing great. Both on special this week. Probably have clown loaches this week as well. They're pretty good size and not skinny.
Colombian Snowball
Julii Cories
Sterbai Cory
Royal Farlowella
Granulosus Cat
Gold Nigrita Syno
Hybrid Jaguar Syno
Eupterus/Angelicus Cross
Featherfin Syno Cat
Syno decorus
Other Fish & Stuff
I have one, maybe two schoutedeni puffers available. This is a true freshwater species from the Congo River. Among the smallest of the African puffers, they only get 4" or so. Often considered peaceful but it's probably more accurate to say sometimes peaceful. Puffers tend to have individual personalities, and they don't all act the same. Assuming this one isn't a jerk they may work with Congo tetras if you want a biotope appropriate schooling fish, or other good size schooling fish if you're a barbarian that mixes fish from different continents.
I have lots of spotted puffers and a pretty good number of figure-8s in stock too. These aren't variable in personality. Every one of them will relentless chase every tankmate you can think of keeping with them. Thirty years of selling these fish and I have no idea why they're still so popular. They're brackish to full saltwater too just to make them even more of a pain in the ass.
Blue and opaline gouramis should be in stock for next week. A little small but they look good. Pearl gouramis are still decent size and just starting to show color. Best gourami (relative) I have are the import red paradise. They're spectacular and get brighter every day.
Goyder River trifasciatus are the best looking rainbowfish here this week. Emeralds are probably nicer, but only the males, and they're sold as mix sex so you're going to get copper colored females. Praecox are still big and nice. Boesmanis aren't big but they do have color.
Some other odds and ends that look good include transparent knives, panda telescope goldfish (very limited) 4"+ shubunkins, 5" silver arowanas, ~6" fire eels, zig zag eels (they're small but cheap), gold killis (also small but they're on sale this week), delhezi bichirs, albino bichirs, peacock gudgeons, and humphead glassfish.
Shrimp selection is still pretty good but going fast. If you want red shrimp get the bloody mary shrimp. Red crystals are getting real limited but they're beautiful. Black and red bee shrimp look more calico than bee but they look great. Amon shrimp are very good size. And for other inverts, the blue, gold, and ivory mystery snails are all pretty good size this week.
Schoutedeni Puffer
Figure-8 Puffer
Red Paradise
Goyder River Trifasciata Rainbow
Emerald Rainbow
Transparent Knife
Panda Telescope
Delhezi Bichir
Siamese Algae Eaters
Zig Zag Eels
Bloody Mary Shrimp
Amano shrimp are big.
Blue Mystery 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.
