Newsletter 09-08-23

Assorted XL swords are by far the nicest swordtail here. These are Florida bred and huge, lots of males, and lots of red in the mix. If you insist on straight color types, all I have are imports and they are very female heavy. The neons are the biggest. Painted, pink comets and pineapples look pretty good too. Calico sankes are small but still very pretty. Velvet wags are small and not very velvety red.

I do have a nice import red lyretail sword this week. These are dramatically different than the Hong Kong red lyretail 'vampire' swords. They're about half the size, the red is much less intense, and I'm not sure that they will all develop a full lyretail. Having said that, they're about half the price of the vampire lyretails. They do have a nice high dorsal fin, like the old school Simpson highfin swords.

Plenty of guppies in stock this week. The koi guppies are one of the nicest right now, a very nice mix of red and white and black. Assorted dumbos, blue Moscows, red tux, and red dragon dumbos all look good too.

Red tiger platies are back in stock. The pattern isn't consistent but they're all a nice mix of red and white. Bumblebee platies, blue micky mouse, big gold mickies, and sunset mickies are all nice too.

Should have some assorted sailfin mollies available next week. Mix may include golds, blacks, silvers and dalmatians.

I have a few big, gorgeous 'Geos' in stock right now courtesy of hurricane Idalia. One of my reps retired (for now) from fishkeeping when his fishroom/garage had two feet of water in it. So I have some outstanding adult Geo abalios and 'Geo' daemon. Wild fish, but tank-raised since they came in at ~2" a long time ago. A few other odds and ends that he brought in include a couple of giant true parrots, a few diadem acaras, a single crassippinnis bumble bee oscar and some F1 true red terrors. On the topic of odds and ends, I have one big lonely istlanum, a gorgeous red-breast longimanus, a half-grown lemon oscar, three or four 6"+ green umbees, about a half-dozen 5"+ brasiliensis, and a couple of big Mayans.

Got some new fancy angelfish in stock this week. I have koi pearlscales for the first time in months. I certainly wouldn't describe them as high-orange kois, but they have some orange and they should develop more as they get bigger. I also have some gold veils, and select gold pearlscales. Still sitting on a bunch of very nice silver pearlscales as well.

Red-spot turquoise severums came in this week in a couple of sizes. They're showing way more color than I expected, and both sizes are bigger than I expected. This is a colorful aquarium strain that already has plenty of blue and red, and they'll keep getting more colorful as they get bigger. I also have limited numbers of red-spot gold severums in stock, and probably have more coming in on Monday.

Green terrors got a bit bigger this week and have some color. Jacks still look good. Firemouths are back in stock and the size is a little better. Convicts and pink convicts are OK. Red devils are very nice in the 2" and 3" size. 'EB carpintis' are still the best value cheap New World cichlid.

3" 'Geo' heckeli are still oversized and look fantastic. I might have a few 5" heckeli too. Medium balzani are showing a big of yellow, and it's a great strain that will have lots of yellow at maturity. Medium brasiliensis have plenty of blue already, very pretty. I do have small altifrons and redhead Tapajos but they are very small, under 2" and no color. Both fantastic fish but you'll have to grow them up a bit before they color up.

I found the Neetroplus that came in a week ago. They're small and gray right now but they grow up to be an neat and unusual fish. They are algae scrapers, and while opportunistic feeders you should give them a diet with plenty of veggies. Their breeding dress is black with a white bar in the middle, giving them an old common name of poor man's Tropheus. Which isn't applicable nowadays since I've probably sold 1000 Tropheus for every Neetropus that's come through here. This fish is scarce in the hobby, in no small part because they're hyperaggressive and harder to tank-raise than many of the more common Centrals. Max size is only around 5" but they still need a lot of room, and a lot of hiding spots and visual barriers if you want to keep them successfully.

Some other less common species include gorgeous Rio Usumacinta salvinis (oversized with color), small snook, black umbees, midas, big zonatus, trimacs, argentea, yellowjackets, and big Tamasopoensis.

I have more of the red warrior flowerhorns in stock. These are a domestic fish, but one of the parents is a big import Kampfa type with a giant stupid hump on it. Hate flowerhorns all you want but your customers love them, they don't die, they're pretty, and you should be making a good mark on them.

Platinum parrots are back in stock but they are tiny. Blood parrots are good size, and blue tiger parrots are pretty good size too.

Restocked with more of the double-red Apisto agassizii this week. Mixed sex with great looking males, females are a fair bit smaller. I also have a new fire gold agassizii. This one is even more distant from the wild types, with a gold body and red down the back. Pretty fish and these tank-raised fish are generally pretty hardy.

Some other far-east imports that look good include chili oscars, lemon oscars, longfin common oscars, flowerhorns, limited numbers of electric blue acaras, and red turquoise discus.

No new cories this week but I may have the most varieties of cories I've seen in a long time. And they're all here at least a week so no fresh imports that I'm iffy about shipping the following week.

The large julii may be the biggest julii I've seen come through here. I also have some very impressive large skunk cories (arcuatus (or more likely granti but arcuatus on my list)). Rabuati are exceptional, showing green stripes down the back I've never rabauti look this colorful. Likely something other than rabauti; cory cat nerds help me out on this one. Concolor cories are small and not that impressive but when they grow up these are nearly black with rusty red fins. Agassizii (sodalis) are very pretty already, nice green sheen over the whole fish.

Pleco variety is the same as last week and the week before and the week before. Medium royals are nice, large royals are nice, skip the small royals this week. XL green phantoms look great, and I'm pretty sure it's the only size here. Colombian snowballs and Colombian zebras are both small but both look good. Smoky peckoltia plecos are a rainbow of every shade of gray. Big wild bushynose are nice and they've been holding up well lately.

A few other South American imports that look good incude big jelly cats, small royal farlowellas, four-line pims, bumblebee cats, and a few lingering spotted shovelnose.

Plenty of Florida-bred catfish in stock this week. I got in a few fancy bushynose this week, including lemon blue eyes that are a fair bit bigger then what I usually get. Super red bushynose are as super red as ever (not that super) but they look really good and are well started. Also got in some longfin lemondrops with exceptional fins. I even have bigger sizes on the standard bushynose, and some gigantic albino bushynose.

In addition to the plecos I've got some new tank-raised longfin green cories. They're real small but they look good, and already have noticeably longer fins than normal. Still have a few of the Florida-bred Venezuela black cories in stock too, and they're holding up great for me. Also have Indo albino paleatus that are nice and really cheap, and some almost cory cat albino hoplo cats.

Florida-bred angelicus/eupterus are running big and look fantastic. Indo petricola are pretty small but are always popular. Florida multis are mixed up still, still on sale cheap as an assorted Florida multi-like Syno.

Got in even more of the 'striped mountain loaches'. They look good, especially at their special price this week. Very sumo loach like, but not as colorful. Yo-yo loaches are in stock. The size isn't great, but better than most of what I've seen recently.