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| I have two or three big goldie plecos in stock this week, plus a ton of less extravagant plecos. |
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Hey Folks,
Hope you like plecos because I've got a lot of them this week. I got in a shipment from Belem this week with a ton of fancy plecos and some rare pikes. Colombia had a few new items and a lot of staples. Got some new fancy Africans as well with crazy bright color.
Gold nugget plecos are the backbone of Belem orders, and this time is no different. The gold nuggets come in three common types. The L18 is the standard gold nugget, the L18 is a small-spot variety, and the L177 Iriri is a large-spot variety. This shipment may be the best order I've received in terms of these all being distinct. In the wild they tend to grade into each other, and in a lot of shipments there are fish that are in-between these distinct phenoptypes. The L177 Iriri are by far the nicest of these three types, although they're all outstanding. In addition to the larger spots the Iriri tend to have a broader yellow band on the fin edges, and the yellow is more of an orangish-yellow. The gold nuggets are a mid-sized omnivorous species. Max size is around 9". This is not a strict algae eater. Like all Baryancistrus, these fish need plenty of meat in their diet. They'll take shrimp pellets, frozen bloodworms, or other meaty foods in addition to algae wafers.
For new cichlids, I have a few 'sun-stratus' XL males. This is a rostratus cross, and like the rostratus they get big and crazy bright. They retain the blue/green face from the rotratus, and the 'sun' part of their name is because they have a ton of yellow/orange. I have a few OB and a couple non-OB types.
Sparkling gouramis are in stock from Singapore this week. Not a rare fish but certainly a fish that isn't as popular as it should be. They are small, they're peaceful, will live in a community tank with other small peaceful fish, they have great color, and they're cheap. Normally any fish that checks all these boxes is a staple item and probably in all the box stores. Not the case for this fish, so you get a chance to have something super nice that they don't get. Max size isn't much more than an inch and a half. When I say they're OK in a community tank I mean with other small fish like neons, or even better little nano sized rasboras. They'll do great with galaxy rasboras, neon green kubotai or other similar fish.
I got a few comments about the huge size on the black skirts in my pic last week. Check out the longfin pink GloFish tetra below. A lot of my longfin GloFish tetras are almost as big, and the standard fins aren't far behind. GloFish danios are running big too. And I have green sharks in stock for another week.
Pet Advocacy Network has updated their information regarding the push to list Banggai cardinals (which are nearly all tank-raised) as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. If you didn't get an email from them this week than you need to sign up to get updates, and you need to go here for directions to comment on this issue. In short, it's a push to ban imports of a species where all imports are aquaculture products or collected where they're not native. These cardinals are an easy target because NGOs can push for the ban by spouting off about the hundreds of thousands of imports of a species with a microscopic range that clearly can't support commercial collection. They'll just leave out the part where the imports are not wild collected. This is a key point to keep in mind when these sort of issues come up; imported and wild-collected are not the same thing, be it freshwater fish, saltwater fish, or reptiles. If you missed it the last few weeks you can find plenty of info on the NAIA website.
Thanks,
Joe Hiduke
Sales Manager
Nautilus |
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| L18 Standard Gold Nugget |
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| L81 Small-Spot Gold Nugget (aka Orange Seam) |
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| L177 Iriri Large-Spot Gold Nugget |
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| OB Sun-Stratus |
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| Sparkling Gouramis |
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| Longfin Pink GloFish Tetras |
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Got a new tetra on my Belem order. I have flameback bleeding hearts in stock. Right now they look pretty much like bleeding hearts. When they settle in and get bigger they'll be much brighter than a standard bleeding heart. They are distinct and impressive when they're full grown.
Red phantoms are in from Colombia. They are small, with decent color. Ruby tetras that came in last week are a little more red but very, very small. Green neons are small too but they look nice size compared to the ruby tetras. Still have some rainbow emperor tetras, they're mixed size, with great color on the bigger fish. New gold tetras are good size for gold tetras and very bright (and cheap).
For larger characins, I've got new red hooks. Pretty good size and fairly clean fins, they're very nice. Flagtail Prochilodus got small, around 3.5". Might have a few pink-tail Chalceus left, and I probably a dozen or so South American gar. Still have more than a few pacus and albino pacus, both terrible fish for almost all of your customers.
Still getting in lots of oversized Florida fish. Black skirts were big all week, and they're still big today. Glowlights, silvertips, sepaes, longfin serpaes, longfin blushing white skirts, penguins, and Colombian tetras all look good too.
Glass bloodfins that came in a few weeks ago are still in stock and some of the biggest ones I've seen. Some other far-east farm fish that look good include ember tetras, green fire tetras, and balloon red-eyes. Got in some beckfordi pencils that look really good, and some red beckfordi that look fantastic. Very limited, I may have a few left for next week. |
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| Flameback Bleeding Heart |
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| Ruby Tetras |
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| Gold Tetras |
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| Red Phantom Tetras |
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| Serpaes have nice color, and the longfins look even better (but they're harder to get decent pics of). |
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| Bloodfin Tetras |
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| Glass Bloodfin |
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| Beckfordi Pencils |
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| Red Beckfordi Pencils |
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Good week for exceptional examples of common fish. Giant danios are huge, and they're on sale. Longfin zebra danios look fantastic, and I'm not sure I've ever said that before. Great size, and bright blue and yellow. Gold zebra danios are huge too. The veil and albino veil cherry barbs are still big and beautiful. Albino cherry barbs, rosy barbs (a little female heavy but good size), pearl danios, and medium tiger barbs are all nice. I have a few white clouds and gold white clouds that are a bit small. Scissortails are back in stock but a little small as well.
Import rasbora hets look great, big with nice color on the fins. Might have a few purple rasbora hets left too. They're pretty but about a third the size of the standard hets. Platinum green tiger barbs look great, big and bright. Red panda barbs are pretty good size and should color up soon.
For nano fish, the Asian rummynose still look great. They look silver in the picture, which isn't inaccurate, but it doesn't really show that it's a solid platinum/white/silver, not a crappy translucent silver. They look great, and are getting a little more red every day. Should have plenty of galaxy rasboras, emerald dwarf rasboras, and maybe a few more kubotai. |
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| Giant Danio |
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| Longfin Zebra Danios |
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Rasbora Hets
Got even bigger this week. |
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Rosy Barbs
Good size but a little female heavy. |
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| Platinum Green Tiger Barb |
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| Red Panda Barbs |
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| Asian Rummynose |
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Velvet swords are back in stock and pretty crappy. They're not velvet, there aren't many swords in the tank (meaning female heavy), and they're small. Get something else and let the people that don't read the email get the velvet swords this week. Neons and pineapples are OK, still imports and female heavy. Assorted micky mouse swords are nice size and lots of red in the assortment. Painted swords and pink comets are both nice but limited. Assorted lyretails are surprisingly nice; they're not tiny and they have pretty good color. I'm expecting more of the monster XL Florida swords over the weekend, that should be what you order next week.
If you need fancier swordtails, the firecrackers are very nice. These are crazy deep red with nice fins (this mutation has branched fin rays at the tips, like a rosefin betta).
Sunset tux platies are new this week. They're a little small but super bright and they look great. I also have a new candy cane platy this week. I usually get a candy cane mickey; these are just clean red and white. A few other platies that look good include dawn platies, bumblebees, blue mickeys, green lanterns, and asst XL platies.
Best guppies in stock include pigeonbloods, tricolor dumbos, red dragon dumbos, red Endlers, and black Endlers. |
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| Assorted Mickey Mouse Swords |
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| Assorted Lyretail Swords |
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'Velvet' Swords
(This is not a highlight pic, this is a pic to suggest you order something other than velvet swords) |
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| Firecracker Swords |
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| Sunset Tux Platy |
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| Candy Cane Platies |
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| Tricolor Dumbo Guppies |
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| Gold Lyretail Sphenops |
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I have three new pike cichlids in from Brazil. My favorite are Teleocichla. They're brown and rare and probably won't sell for you, but I bet I have a half dozen store owners or managers that will buy these fish so don't wait. This is a really small species, less than 3" max size. They are a rapids-dwelling species, and they hop around the bottom like a goby. Assuming my supplier is correct these are Teleocichla proselytus, and if you believe Google images than these should get pearly blue/green blotches on their sides. Very limited numbers of these. Apparently I'm dumb enough to bring in the fish, but not so dumb that I got in a lot of them.
If you prefer to bring in fish that might sell for you I got you covered. Xingu I orange pikes are in stock. This a lugubris type and gets big and crazy bright red. The juveniles that I have are yellow/orange, and used to be traded as french fry pikes back when they were commonly available.
I also have compressiceps pikes which might be the best looking of the three pikes I got, and they're the cheapest and easiest to keep. I love these guys because while they are dwarf pikes, they're dwarf pikes that know they're pikes. Not like those wussy reganni types that are like long skinny Apistos. Like their bigger relatives these are aggressive fish, and they can be particular aggressive to conspecifics, even more so if they're ready to start a family. Lots of dither fish help them to acclimate and keep them from beating on each other too much.
For some boring Florida stuff that will outsell my super cool pikes 100-1, I have way oversized jack dempseys in stock. Nearly medium size with lots of blue spots. Also have pretty good numbers of convicts, Texas, and a few green terrors. 2" heckeli look pretty good, and I have a few super nice 5" brasiliensis pearly eartheaters, and four or five 4"+ redhead Tapajos.
Ran through a bunch of specialty cichlids this week but I still have some Neetroplus. They are very grey but also very rare in the hobby. Black with a white bar when they're in breeding dress, which will be a few months down the road when they get a lot bigger. Some other uncommon New World cichlids include big emerald Usumacinta salvinis, small snook, yellowjacket friedrichstahli, blue umbees, and black umbees.
I still have Indo Apistos. If you missed last week's email, the borelli are small and crappy. They'll look great when they grow up but they're tiny and have no color now. Gold fire aggies are pretty nice, and the double red aggies are the nicest variety.
A few other far-east fish that look good include longfin common oscars, lemon oscars, uaru, and very pretty oversized 2" Singapore assorted discus.
Medium black angels are back to a pretty normal medium size this week, but the medium mix, medium koi, and medium golds are all big. |
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| Teleocichla proselytus |
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| Orange Pike |
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| Compressiceps Dwarf Pike |
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| Jack Dempseys |
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| Heckeli |
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Panda Angels
Not that impressive but it doesn't matter if panda is in the name. |
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| Asst 2" Singapore Discus |
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| I have two of these giant true parrots. A couple of the last fish left from Brody's flooded house. |
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While my fancy new 'sun-stratus' hybrids are super limited, I got in pretty good numbers of the premium OB peacocks this week. They're super nice OBs, the kind of stuff that would be some combination of electric/platinum/butterfly/pearl/lemon whatever when I get them not in a mix. Lots of high yellows, lots with a crazy pearly sheen that's not easy to show in pics, long fins, nice white fin edges, etc. And I got them a little cheaper so look for these on my Monday specials page. They'll be a little more than the assorted medium male peacock but they're worth it. That medium male mix is very nice too, just not quite as nice as these OBs. I also refreshed the large male hap mix and there's some really big and bright fish in the mix. Not kidding when I say mixed, it's going to be mostly a bunch a big bright hybrids. If you want pure fish, the large male fuscos I have are gorgeous, very surprised their still here. The Cop azureus are amazing too, although they're smaller, more of a medium peacock size.
Best mbunas in stock now are redhead macs. Oversized and showing a ton of color. Kennyi are really big too. Acei, red zebras, cobalts, socos, and snow white socos all look good too. Medium fancy mix is still your best value, they're oversized and super bright.
Maswa duboisi are still here and still awesome. They're huge with blue faces and look great. Still have some Karambe moori in stock too. They still have a ways to go before they're fully colored but they are a great value, especially compared to most of the thumbnail sized import Tropheus I see.
Another fish in the category of 'I can't believe they're still here' are the Turkana jewels. They're amazing. Crazy bright with black fin edges, and iridescent blue in the fins. And they don't beat on each other like standard jewels. I have about a half-dozen left. If you want something even more peaceful I have a few of the African butterfly cichlids left. They are small, but this is a nice peaceful dwarf cichlid, that gets rows of bright blue spots like jewel cichlids. They don't get red, but they also don't get murderous with their tankmates. |
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Non-OB Sun-stratus
I have two pieces, this guy and one that's a little smaller. |
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| Premium OB Peacocks |
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| Premium OB Peacock |
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| Standard Medium Male Florida Peacocks |
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| Asst Lg Haps |
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| Cop azureus |
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| Ruby Green |
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Crimson Tide Haps
Biggest ones are just showing color. |
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| Red Zebras |
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| Maswa Duboisi |
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Get ready for the most plecos I've ever featured in an email. Plenty more variety from Brazil plus a few new Colombian fish.
L273 red titanic plecos are in stock for just the second time. They're not huge, but honestly they get uglier when the get big so this is a nice size to bring them in. Very toothy, these are similar to the cactus or scarlet types that are carnivorous leaning omnivores. I also have some L264 sultan/gray leopard plecos. A related spiky and toothy carnivore, these stay smaller and are easier to house as adults. I expect they'll lighten up; when they're settled in they're a much lighter grey color than my picture shows, with contrasting black spots.
I haven't had L47 mango plecos for years. This is a Baryancistrus like the gold nuggets. They are similar, but instead of gold spots they have a plain body with a very wide orange border on the dorsal and caudal fins. LDA033 true snowball plecos are also in stock from Brazil. They are similar to the Colombian snowballs, but this is a bigger and stockier fish, and they typically have a much cleaner pattern. Another Baryancistrus species. Consistently darker background color, and the white spots are good size and clean. They can get almost 10", so this is a much bigger fish than the Colombian Hypancistrus.
L15 candy-cane plecos are a Peckoltia species, and stay relatively small. Max size under 6". The ones I have a very mixy in size, ranging from around 2" to 4". The smaller ones are a little brighter in color. They're a lot like a really fancy clown pleco.
L020 polkadot plecos are my least impressive fish on this shipment, but they will look a lot better when they're fully acclimated. Crappy gray pleco would be a better common name today, but when they settle in they get pretty clear light spots. Not crisp white spots like the snowballs, but light gray spots on a slightly darker gray background. Look for a better pick next week when they're more settled in because I'm not expecting to sell many with the pic I got this week.
I don't have a lot of Colombian plecos in this week but I did get a few blue phantoms. They are small, but clearly blue, which isn't always the case with this species. I also have some green phantoms that look very different. They're autumn phantom plecos, having a brownish body and yellow/orange spots. Really neat looking fish today, we'll see if they look the same tomorrow. Both of the species change color a fair bit with mood.
While they're not as nice as the Brazilian snowballs I did restock on Colombian snowballs. They may be a little less pretty, but they are a better fish for smaller tanks, and they're better algae eaters (although still omnivorous). Also have Colombian royal plecos in a couple sizes, and still have a pretty good number of wild bushynose.
I didn't get any new cories this week but I did carry over a lot from last week. This means I'm a lot more likely to fill these cories next week. Brochis cats (I know not exactly a cory but almost) are the biggest and nicest. They're huge, stable, have good color, and I put them on sale. Gold/greens are big and nice too. Punctatus, julii, and limited numbers of metae and rabauti all look good too. I have some great looking domestic medium paleatus, much bigger than the regular size.
Gulper cats are in stock from Colombia. These are the catfish equivalent of a pac-man frog. They'll eat anything that fits in their mouth and they may try to eat everything else. They're pretty safe around fish that are clearly too big to eat, but do have have huge mouths. They get along surprisingly well, so a lot less cannibalistic than pac-man frogs. If you want something just a little more active with a lot more color I have beautiful jelly cats. Mottled pattern in shades of brown and darker brown, they're vibrantly colored compared to gulper cats.
Farlowellas came in tiny this week. They're adorable baby farlowellas. I do still have some bigger ones leftover from previous week's so you should see a couple sizes on the list.
Various other import catfish that look good include tank-raised galaxias woodcats, zamora cats, two lingering granulosus cats, giant otos, mosaic/ninja woodcats, decent size pictus cats, good size four-line pims, Colombian sharks, and royal farlowellas. Spotted raphaels are pretty nice but stripes are rough, ask on Monday how they look. Apparently I had a lot more than two of the big sun cats because my tank is full again. They are exceptional, big with really nice color.
Got in some bigger Florida bred Syno multipunctatus. These are pure multis, not import likely hybrids. They cost more than the similar looking hybrids because pure multis are a lot less prolific than any of the crosses with eupterus. Beautiful silver fish with black spots, and these are really well started, over 2". I do have some less expensive hybrid Synos too. The black panthers are hybrid Syno that is also black spotted and will sell well for your customers that are less concerned about getting pure fish. They are small but still nice.
My loach selection is pretty limited right now. I still have some very nice size Sewellia loaches, plenty of small yo-yo loaches, and I have lots of the Sri Lanka striped mountain loaches. |
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| Red Titanic |
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| Mango Pleco |
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| Brazilian True Snowball Pleco LDA033 |
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| L264 Sultan Pleco |
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| L15 Candy Cane Pleco |
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| L020 Polkadot Pleco |
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| Blue Phantom Pleco |
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| Autumn version of a green phantom pleco. |
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| Small Royal Pleco |
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| Domestic Large Albino Bushynose |
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| Jelly Cat |
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| Gulper Cat |
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| Large Burmese Sun Cat |
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| Baby Farlowellas |
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| Synodontis multipunctatus |
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| Synodontis 'Black Panther' |
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Got in a new batch of ossa knives. They're big and a great value, but don't expect them to do anything. They will eventually settle in, and you might see them move after they've been in your tank for a few months. Until that point they move approximately 0% of the time, at least while the lights are on. If you set them up with a sand bottom they'll bury themselves, but they will learn to use tubes to hide in as well (presumably at night when no one is watching them). Since they are so sedentary and shy don't mix them with fish likely to pick at them.
At the other end of the knifefish spectrum I have big bold royal clown knives. They're list 8" and they're clearly oversized, these are some of the bigger ones I've seen here. They are still far from full grown, as max size on these is well over three feet. They are strongly predatory and they have big mouths, but they're rarely aggressive with tankmates too big to eat. They'll work well with other big fish like arowanas or redtail cats in a huge tank or indoor pond. While these aren't quite as much of a tank-buster as the giant catfish (120 cm is max size, not average size), you still need to sell these responsibly and let people know how big they can get.
I have both gold and red honey gouramis in stock this week. The reds are bigger than the golds, but both of them look good. Florida blue and opaline gouramis are both a little small for Florida fish but still likely bigger than any imports coming in. They're also on sale this week. Gold gouramis are similar in size. Pearl gouramis are even smaller this week and don't have any color. Albino paradise are decent size, while blue paradise are bright but very small imported fish this week.
Medium yellow rainbows are still my best looking rainbow, good size with great color. Boesmanis are a little small with OK color. Turquoise got even smaller and less colorful this week. Millennium are still very pretty, at least the males are. Kamakas are pretty nice. Still have a few huge multisquamatus 'red dragon' rainbows. For the smaller types, featherfins look great, and the furcatus are still great size with tons of yellow.
I have two arrowhead puffers left. These are very, very long-term captives, and on sale for steep discount. If you've been on the fence about getting these do it now, because they've been here long enough that it's going to take a long time for me to forget how slow they sold.
Still have some nice black ranchus and some lionhead goldfish. Not as fancy, but the nicest goldfish I have are the 3.5" calico fans. The color is good and the fins are crazy long. And they're on sale again and super cheap for how nice they are.
Various other fish that look good include flagfish, albino rainbow sharks, ghost sharks, Siamese algae eaters, transparent knives, marble moray eels, 3" clown knives, green scats, and BB gobies. |
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| Ossa Knife |
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| Oversized 8" Royal Clown Knife |
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| Red Honey Gouramis |
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Blue Gouramis
Not real big but with color, and on sale this week. |
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| Pink Kissers |
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| Yellow Rainbow |
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| Red Lionhead |
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3.5" Calico Fantail
On sale this week |
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| Green Scat |
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| BB Goby |
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| Medium Silver Arowana |
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| Marble Moray Eels |
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Shrimp, Snails & Other Inverts
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I certainly have enough inverts to justify keeping the separate category, although there's likely to be a lot of overlap here from week to week.
Blue mystery snails are in stock today and one the bigger and better looking types.
Still have a few of the red-spotted nerites although expect them to run out early next week. Also have limited numbers of fruit nerites and horned nerites. I have nearly unlimited numbers of orange rabbit snails, plus some of the related faunus snails, and the mixed rabbit snail that is not all rabbit snails. It's a mix of the orange rabbits and the faunus snails. Lot and lots of assassin snails in stock too.
Best shrimp this week are still the red crystals. Red fires and black coco shrimp look good. I have a new Florida mixed shrimp that's really nice. The Florida shrimp have gotten so much better over the years, and the current mix looks great. There's not a lot of variety, mostly going to be blues, reds and oranges. But they're all very solidly colored.
I still have quite a few Borneo panther crabs, and limited numbers of the red vampire crabs. Also have plenty of the Thai red crabs. They're not as nice as the red vampires but they're a lot cheaper and they're closer to aquatic. |
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| Blue Mystery Snails |
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| Orange Rabbit Snails |
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| Assassin Snails |
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| Black Coco Shrimp |
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| Red Fire Shrimp |
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| Thai Red Crab |
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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. |
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