Easy
Swordtail Tuxedo (Xiphophorus helleri tuxedo)
23–27°C · pH 7–8.5 · 75L
£4.99
A hardy, colorful livebearing swordtail with elegant lyretail fins that brings constant activity and easy care to community aquariums. Easy care, peaceful. 23-27C, pH 7.0-8.5.
Adult size is the maximum length this species reaches at full maturity (scientific sources). The livestock you receive will be younger and smaller — pick a size variant above for the actual shipping size. Product-photo provenance and any image-specific limitations are stated on the listing.
Xiphophorus helleri
Swordtail Tuxedo Lyra are a shoaling species — they need 6+ to feel safe and show their full colour. Larger shoals stay calmer, eat better, and look stunning.
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A hardy, colorful livebearing swordtail with elegant lyretail fins that brings constant activity and easy care to community aquariums. Easy care, peaceful. 23-27C, pH 7.0-8.5.
Adult size is the maximum length this species reaches at full maturity (scientific sources). The livestock you receive will be younger and smaller — pick a size variant above for the actual shipping size. Product-photo provenance and any image-specific limitations are stated on the listing.
23–27°C · pH 7–8.5 · 75L
23–27°C · pH 7–8.5 · 90L
23–27°C · pH 7–8.5 · 75L
22–28°C · pH 7–8.4 · 75L
Platies are one of the best beginner fish — hardy, colourful, peaceful, and available in dozens of colour varieties. Perfect for community tanks of all sizes.
Maintain these water conditions for optimal health and vibrant colors
Two classic swordtail traits meet in a single strain here: the bold tuxedo pattern and the flowing lyretail. The result is the Tuxedo Lyra Swordtail (Xiphophorus helleri tuxedo lyra) — a livebearer listed at just 4 cm whose elegant finnage looks almost outsized for its body. Lyretail forms trade nothing away in hardiness for their looks; this remains an easy fish in every practical sense, simply a better-dressed one. On the record it is rated easy to care for, peaceful in temperament and entirely conventional in its needs.
Good neighbours include other peaceful livebearers — mollies, platies and guppies — plus Corydoras and Otocinclus working the lower levels. Keep it clear of large aggressive cichlids, fin-nipping barbs, large predators and very delicate slow-moving long-finned fish, and skip anything that must have soft, acidic water; this strain prefers a pH of 7.0–8.5 with hardness from 5 to 30 dGH. It is a fish chosen as much for what you leave out of the tank as what you put in — with no nippers present, the finnage stays pristine and the strain shows exactly as intended.
Day to day it asks for very little: 23–27 °C, a tank of 75 litres upwards and the varied feeding any omnivore enjoys. A weekly partial water change and a steady heater are genuinely most of the maintenance story for a fish with ranges this forgiving. It keeps to the middle of the aquarium, stays peaceful with appropriate company and typically lives around three years.
Those paired lyretail points deserve protection, so be strict about excluding nippers when you plan the tank. In a calm community the Tuxedo Lyra provides constant gentle motion at eye level. Add it after the tank has matured, give it a dim first day to settle, and it rewards the patience — the pattern does the talking while you simply keep the water steady. Orders travel by licensed live-animal courier and arrive under our live arrival guarantee.
