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| Albino Red Empress |
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Hey Folks,
I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday, and hope you all have a great New Year's. Don't forget to say rabbit rabbit first thing on the first. New Year's Day means bowl games and food to me. It's not the slate of games it used to be but I'll be still be watching. And of course it means hoppin' john and collard greens, for luck and money in the new year. If I have more money in the new year it's probably because y'all are buying more fish so that's good for all of us.
2023 has certainly been a challenging year for a whole lot of us. I do want to sincerely thank all of my customers for your support this year. I hit 15 years here next spring, and I know a few of you have been Nautilus customers that whole time. Thanks to those of you that have supported us for years, that support us regularly, and those of you that have us in your vendor rotation. I'm excited about some upcoming changes here, and I hope we can become more regular suppliers to more of you.
Our office is closed on Monday for the holiday. We are treating Tuesday like a Monday, meaning we can pack orders on Tuesday as long as we have the orders when we get in. Based on the last two weeks of atrocious sales I should be absolutely slammed next week as I expect everyone is low on fish, and every should be busy staring the first of the year. In other words, don't call in at 10:00 thinking your order can get packed same day. It's going to be super busy and I only have three days to get everything packed.
Got a nice Colombia shipment this week with a few fish that I haven't seen in a while, plus normal re-stock orders from Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Bangkok. Also brought in lots of Florida fish in anticipation of selling a ton of stuff next week.
I'm going with a nano-fish theme here. You all have a lot of customers that got nano or desk-top tanks for Christmas. And they're all going to want to buy 50 neons for their three gallon tank. I've got a few things that you can suggest instead.
Ruby tetras are in from Colombia and these might be the nicest ones I've ever seen. They're big (for ruby tetras), about twice the size they usually come in. And they're bright red already. This is a very small species, that is very peaceful and works great in a small tank.
From the opposite side of the world I have kubotai neon green rasboras. I've actually had these for about a month but they got moved and I didn't even know they were here. So they've actually settled in and they look great. These are even smaller than ruby tetras, and probably smaller than just about anything else you're likely to stock. Again, a great choice for a nano tank. They practically glow when they're acclimated in a small planted tank.
Endler's livebearers are another good choice for small tanks. Endler's are either guppies are very nearly guppies depending on whether you're a lumper or a splitter. 20 years ago all the Endler's looked pretty much the same, and were all wild-type (which is still crazy bright). Over the years they've bee selectively bred just like standard guppies. They retain the smaller Endler's size and typically have small tails, but they come in a wide variety of colors now. These black Endler's are very similar to the wild types but with more black than red. I also have red Endler's. These are quite different than the wild types, being a basically solid red fish.
Plenty of other nano fish in the various sections below. In addition to the nano fish I got in a few super fancy specialty Africans this week, like the albino red empress up top. I've only had these once before. This set is a bit smaller and they should be a little cheaper, but they're already showing lots of red and a pearly sheen. Outstand fish that isn't easy to come by.
Please give a call if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Joe Hiduke
Sales Manager
Nautilus |
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| Ruby Tetras |
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| Kubotai Rasbora |
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| Black Endler's |
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While the ruby tetras are the nicest of my new Colombian tetras, I also got in a great looking set of gold tetras. These are unlike any other fish in the hobby. They're never available as tank-raised fish because the gold color is not genetic. They actually turn gold from guanine in the skin, produced by the fish when they're exposed to parasites. They don't have parasites, but they're naturally exposed in the wild, and then they retain the gold color for the rest of their lives. I also got in new green neons that are a bit smaller than usual. Still have some red phantom tetras with good color, and very nice bleeding heart tetras.
For your customers with bigger tanks I'm back in stock with a couple of bigger characins. Pinktail Chalceus are in stock again for the first time in a couple months. They're around 3-4" now. These fish get pretty good size, max size at least 10", although it's rare to see them much more than half that size in a tank. They are serious jumpers so make sure they have lids. Temperament is best described as unpredictable. They're rarely very aggressive but occasional individuals are fin nippers. I also have a new set of flagtail Prochs (probably a little under list size but still very nice), and new red hooks.
Plenty of nice far-east imports too. Ember tetras came in bigger than usual and brightly colored. This is another nano fish, or close too it. Black phantoms are still one of the nicest farm fish, and the rosy tetras are still big and nice too. Blue kerris, penguins, black emperors, balloon red-eyes, and rocket gar are all nice too.
Lots of nice size Florida fish, although the ones running big are about the same as last week. The pastel gold neon tetras are exceptional, they get bigger every week. Put these over black gravel with spot lighting and they will make a fantastic display. Some other Florida fish that stand out include highfin black skirts, gold pristellas, bloodfins, glowlight tetras, red-eyes, longfin white skirts, and x-ray tetras. |
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| Gold Tetras |
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| Green Neons |
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| Pink-Tail Chalceus |
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| Flagtail Prochilodus |
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| Tank-raised hujeta rocket gar from Indo. |
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| Black Emperor Tetras |
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| All-Male Congos |
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| Balloon Red-Eyes |
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| Red Eye Tetras |
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| Pastel Gold Neon Tetra |
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| Glowlight Tetras |
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Rosy barbs are still outstanding and you'd be getting a pic of them again but I think I've done that every week for the last month. They're big with plenty of males. Regular tiger barbs got a fair bit bigger this week. Some other Florida fish that look good include decent size gold barbs, black rubies that are big enough to tell they're black rubies, veil-tail cherry barbs, red glass barbs, brilliant rasboras, pearl danios, giant danios, and gold zebra danios.
Import gold neon rosy barbs are nearly as nice as the Florida rosies. Purple rasbora hets are tiny but they are pretty. Certainly a nano sized fish now, and even when they're full grown they don't need a big tank. Big gold white clouds, roseline sharks, tinfoil barbs, and platinum green tiger barbs are all nice as well. |
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| Gold Barbs |
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| Regular tiger barbs got a lot bigger this week. Mediums are still bigger than this and worth the higher price. |
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| Gold White Clouds |
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| Platinum Green Tiger Barbs |
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| Gold Neon Rosy Barbs |
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| Purple Rasbora Het |
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Assorted import swords are still super nice. I have plenty of outstanding firecracker swords and vampire swords. As far as the more standard types, I have some import neons that are OK, import velvets that are very mediocre, pretty Sanke swords that are colorful but small, and Florida marigold wags that look pretty good.
Best platies in stock right now are the yellow calicos. A few others that look good include sunset mickeys, dawn platies, red tigers, and blue mickeys.
Red panda guppies came in this week and they look great. This is a red and white strain with clean color and pattern. The tail isn't huge but they are still fantastic, best guppy here. Flamingo guppies, tricolor dumbos, Japan blues, green cobras, and red dragon dumbos are all nice too. The Florida-bred blond blue star Endler's are very pretty too, and another great choice for New Year's nano tanks.
A lot of my standard/sphenops mollies got smaller this week, but the gold lyretails are still decent size. The large sailfins are still your best option, especially the golds and greens. |
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Assorted Swords
Pretty much XL size, although a little light on males. |
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| Firecracker Sword |
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| Vampire Sword |
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| Cold Calico Platies |
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| Red Wag Platies |
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| Blond Blue Star Endlers |
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| Red Panda Guppies |
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| Tricolor Dumbo Guppies |
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| Gold Sailfin Mollies |
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Not a lot new this week but lots of fish. The convicts are still consistently running large. This includes both the pink convicts and black convicts. Texas cichlids are decent size, smaller than the convicts but acceptable. EB acaras look fantastic.
Still have all the jumbo trimacs you could ever want. Also have one big sagittae, one or two big salvinis, and two or three big balzanis with stupid humps.
Some less common Florida fish that look good include grammodes 'mini-wolf' cichlids, medium salvinis, 3" chocolate cichlids, 4" red devils, rainbow cichlids, and 4" Cuban cichlids.
A few angelfish that stand out this week include large black angels, medium golds, and medium koi angels.
Got a couple types of discus lingering here. I have some pigeonbloods and some snow whites, both Singapore fish. Holding up great, and the snow whites are oversized.
Also have plenty of parrot cichlids available. Blood parrots are great size, platinum parrots are a lot smaller but still look really good. |
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| Black Convicts |
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| 4" Red Devil |
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| XL Trimac |
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| Belize Synspilum aka Melanura |
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| Wild Colombian Pike |
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| Blood Parrots |
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| Pigeonblood(ish?) Discus |
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| Snow White Discus |
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Finally have a good week for new Africans. The albino red empress may be one of the best looking new fish, but I have a lot of other fish in this category that are close. I have a handful of big XL/show type peacocks. They're all OBs are they are all outstanding. A lot bigger and brighter than a medium mix, and I have these set up individually so they shouldn't color down much. I also have a new set of the 'red-stratus' rostratus/Protomelas crosses. They keep the crazy bright blue/green face and body of the rostratus (but withouth having to be a foot long to color up), and combine that with lots of red in the flanks. Great looking fish that isn't cheap but also isn't available anywhere else.
Got some new smaller Haps as well. I'm back in stock with albino compressiceps. They're a regular size, but running big. They look good now, and this strain is fantastic when it grows up, with the males keeping a light blue face and flush over a yellow body. Also have some medium blue dolphin moori with OK color, and plenty of smaller ones that are already showing some blue.
I have new mbunas as well. Msobos are back in stock. One of my favorite species, they have a color scheme like a saulosi with orange females and blue/black males, but the pattern on the males is striped instead of barred. Not sure there's any mbuna I'd call peaceful but these are on the laid back end of the mbuna aggression scale. At the other end of that scale are mainganos, which also came in this week. They're very, very similar to an EB johanni (or the same depending on who you ask). If I understand correctly they're probably the same fish but a decades more recent importation of broodstock and a lot brighter than the 50 year old farm strain EB johannis. So kind of a clever way to market a better strain.
Various other Africans that look good include starry night bleekeri, about a half-dozen lingering Turkana jewels, red zebras, acei, oversized auratus, Chailosi elongatus, gold Tropheops, fancy medium mix mbunas, OB red empress, and Karambe Tropheus moori. |
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| XL OB Peacock |
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| Red-Sided Peacock |
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| Red-Stratus Hap |
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| Yellow OB Peacock XL |
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| Albino Compressiceps |
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| Medium Blue Dolphin Moori |
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| XL OB Peacock |
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| Msobos |
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| Mainganos |
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| Medium acei are a little small for medium but they're big enough for their blue to change to this deep almost purplish blue. |
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| Auratus |
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| Rock Kribs |
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GloFish cory cats are fantastic size today, at least the green and the orange. I'll probably run through these big ones soon so get them while you can.
Sticking with cory cats, I restocked on some Colombian fish. Brochis cats and skunk cories are good size. Punctatus cories are a little smaller but more likely to ship. Rabauti cories have been here a few weeks and they look great. Got so many pygmy cories that they're on sale this week.
Pleco selection is going to be the same but I gave you a few different pics this week. Vampire plecos and green phantoms are still the best looking plecos. Blue phantoms are getting more blue, but they are small. Colombian snowballs and zebras are both in stock in pretty good numbers, and both of them are pretty good size. Wild bushynose plecos aren't very bushy but they are big.
Bumble bee cats came in tiny. They're on special but not very big. Striped raphaels are big and they look great. Spotted raphaels are about half the size of the striped. Banjo cats are decent size. Some other import catfish that look good include royal farlowellas (on special), farlowellas, four-line pims, and limited numbers of gulper cats.
For domestic fish, the 3" assorted Synos are amazing and it's stupid that they're still here. True petricolas are gorgeous too, and I restocked on hybrid angelicus/eupterus. For plecos, the 2" bushynose are almost 2", at least some of them are. Skip every one of the 1-1;5" bushynose this week, they're all terrible. Except the lemon blue-eyes, they actually got a little bigger.
Still have plenty of nice tiger botias and redtail botias. Also have lots of good size dojo loaches and some small gold dojos. I'll probably be able to send out limited numbers of Borneo suckers this week but they are running very small. |
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| Orange and Green GloFish Cory Cats |
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| Punctatus Cories |
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| Rabauti Cory Cats |
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| Colombian Snowball Pleco |
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| Blue Phantom Pleco |
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| Wild Bushynose |
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BB Cats
They are on special, but very, very small. |
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| Banjo Cats |
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| Striped raphaels are big. Spotted are nice too but about half this size. |
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| 2" bushynose are mostly close to 2". |
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3" Asst Syno
aka 'fake multi'
Great value |
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| Redtail Cat |
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| Dojo Loach |
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| Borneo Sucker |
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I have bumblebee gobies this week, and purely by accident I have (I think) freshwater BB gobies. Pretty sure these are xanthmelas, which is a freshwater fish, in fact a species from soft acidic water. These fish are no more likely to work in a community tank with prepared foods than a standard BB goby, but at least you won't have to add salt to their species tank. They are still going to want live foods and only very peaceful tankmates (if any). I'd expect them to eat Sera micropellets because I've never seen a fish turn that down, otherwise plan on live foods.
I also have orange gobies with absolutely no orange (I didn't name this one). They are another true freshwater species that hops around the bottom. Rhino gobies are in stock as well. This one is a brackish fish that needs salt in their tank.
I have all the South American knife fish in stock this week. Transparent knives are small but they look good. This is the most social of the common knife fish. They do well in groups. Not a small fish, they can get over a foot long (so smaller than the black ghosts). Brown ghosts are the opposite. They hate each other more than any of the common knife fish and will constantly fight. They are a good value as they're similar to the black ghost but a lot cheaper. They do have big mouths and will eat small fish. Black ghosts are similar to the brown ghost but blacker and more expensive. Get the mediums, the smalls are tank-raised and tiny.
Florida gouramis are kind of hit and miss right now. Opalines are a little bigger than blues. Both are likely limited next week. Pearl gouramis are still tiny. Import dwarf gouramis are also very limited, getting a lot less than I need. Red and gold honey gouramis are very pretty and they are in good supply. Albino paradise are very nice, and the import red paradise are still outstanding.
My best rainbows this week are crimson-spot duboulayi. Yellow rainbows have been coming in with great color too. Medium boesmanis look great a couple days ago and then sold out so ask me on Tuesday how the new ones look. Turquoise are small but bright. Kamakas are a little bigger with nice color. Got new red rainbows with nice looking males and very brassy females. Deepwater Creek splendida are big with bright red fins.
For smaller rainbows, I got some great size gertrudae in this week. My picture below probably isn't going to sell many fish, but if you know the fish you know these are big. Look them up on Google and even you discount the best few pictures you' can probably still get an idea of how nice they are. Featherfin rainbows are still big with crazy long fins. I have some lingering daisy rice fish that aren't at all related to rainbows, but they kind of act a lot like a blue-eye rainbow.
Various other odds and ends that look good include archerfish, dwarf puffers, figure-8 puffers, paskai rainbows, leopard Ctenopomas, albino bichirs, peacock gudgeon gobies, medium Siamese algae eaters, and albino rainbow sharks. |
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Bumble Bee Gobies
Brachygobius xanthomelas (I think) instead of the typical doriae. |
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| Rhino Gobies |
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| Orange Gobies |
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| Transparent Knife |
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| Medium Black Ghost |
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| Small Black Ghost Knives |
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| Brown Ghost Knife |
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| Crimson-Spotted Rainbow |
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| Gertrudae Rainbows |
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| Daisy Rice Fish |
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Archerfish
Very limited. |
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Shrimp, Snails & Other Inverts
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Still no Florida snails other than a few albinos. Ask again next week. I do have limited numbers of orange rabbit snails.
Plenty of nice shrimp in stock. Blue velvets and black carbon rilis are small but look good. Deluxe mix are OK size and a nice mix of colors. Red fires are big, nice Singapore shrimp. Red crystals are Singapore this week too which tend to have a cleaner pattern than the Indo ones I get.
Still have Borneo panther crabs and they're awesome. |
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Deluxe Mix Shrimp
It's even more deluxe if you refer to the colorless shrimp as vanilla shrimp. |
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| Black Carbon Rili Shrimp |
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| Red Crystal Shrimp |
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| Panther 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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