Red Velvet Cauliflower Swordtail (Xiphophorus hellerii)

The Red Velvet Cauliflower Swordtail (Xiphophorus hellerii) is a premium show strain that takes the familiar swordtail in two directions at once. Red Velvet is the colour: a deep, saturated, unbroken red with no wag markings or speckling to break it up. Cauliflower is the finnage: a tall, ruffled, heavily frilled hifin dorsal that the fish raises like a sail when it displays. Put those together on a fish that also carries the classic sword and you get one of the most striking livebearers available. Care level is beginner. Browse the rest of our live fish and freshwater supplies to build the tank around it.

Care Guide

• Tank size: 20 gallons long is the practical minimum, 29 gallons or larger is better. These are active, fast swimmers that use the whole length of a tank, and a group needs the room.
• Water is the key: pH 7.0 to 8.2 and GH 12 to 30, moderately hard to hard. Most Georgia tap water suits them well. If yours is soft, raise the hardness with Seachem Equilibrium or a bag of crushed coral in the filter, and check where you actually stand with a GH test kit. Soft acidic water is the usual reason swordtails do poorly.
• Temperature: 72 to 79°F. They tolerate the cooler end of tropical better than most community fish.
• Lid: mandatory. Swordtails are among the most reliable jumpers in the hobby, and a startled fish will find any gap. Cover cutouts for cords too.
• Diet: omnivore with a real vegetarian requirement. A quality flake such as Community Crave plus spirulina flake or algae wafers keeps the red colour deep. A diet of protein alone leaves them washed out and prone to bloat.
• Aquascape: open swimming space down the middle with planting at the sides and back. Hornwort and floating plants are worth adding, both for cover and because fry hide in them.
• Protect the finnage: that tall ruffled dorsal is a magnet for fin nippers. Keep tiger barbs, serpae tetras, and similar nippers out of the tank or you will watch the best feature of the fish get shredded.

Specifications

Compatibility

A good community fish with the usual livebearer caveats. They mix well with platies, mollies, guppies, larger peaceful tetras, corydoras, and nerite snails, all of which appreciate the same harder water.

Watch the sex ratio. Males chase females relentlessly, so keep either a single male with two or three females, or a group of females only. Two males in a small tank will spend their time fighting each other, and the loser takes the damage on his fins. Avoid fin nippers entirely, and skip anything large enough to see a five inch fish as a meal.

Recommended Foods & Supplies

• Xtreme Community Crave Flakes, a balanced everyday staple
• Xtreme Spirulina Flakes for the vegetable side of the diet and deeper red colour
• Seachem Equilibrium to raise hardness if your water is soft
• Fritz GH Test Kit so you know your actual hardness instead of guessing
• Hornwort and Frogbit for cover and fry hiding places

FAQ

What does Cauliflower actually mean?
It is the name for the ruffled hifin dorsal. Instead of the short dorsal on a standard swordtail, these carry a tall fin with a frilled, crinkled edge that looks a bit like a cauliflower floret when it is fully raised. It is purely a finnage trait and does not change how the fish is kept.

Do females have the sword?
No. The sword is the extended lower lobe of the tail and only males develop it, along with the gonopodium, the modified anal fin they use to breed. Females are fuller bodied with a plain fan tail. Ask us which we have in the tank if you want a specific sex.

Will they breed on their own?
Almost certainly, and quickly. Swordtails are livebearers and a female can drop twenty to a hundred fry roughly every month, often already carrying young when you buy her. Adults eat fry, so a few survive in a planted tank and the rest do not. Plan for that before you buy a group.

Can I keep them with my soft water tetras?
It is a compromise. Swordtails want hard alkaline water and blackwater fish want the opposite, so somebody loses. Pair them instead with other livebearers, which want exactly the same conditions.