* For the safety of our animals, we now ship live fish exclusively via UPS Next Day Air. If your order contains this item, you will only see UPS Next Day Air as a shipping option during checkout *
This koi swordtail has incredibly vibrant orange and white coloration with a black tail and is certainly not your "everyday" variety!
The Black Tail Koi Kohaku Swordtail (Xiphophorus helleri) is a rather uncommon and very colorful swordtail variation that has extremely vivid orange and white/silver koi-like coloration. As is typical with swordtails, males often have a long "sword" extension at the bottom of the tail, although some females can also develop a sword. Reliable sexing can be done by checking the anal fin area for the male gonopodium, a tube-like organ used in fertilization during spawning. Like most swordtail varieties, the Black Tail Koi Kohaku Swordtail is a variant of the wild Green Swordtail (Xiphophorus helleri), but it also has genetics of other Xiphophorus species (such as X. maculatus and X. variatus platy varieties) to achieve new color patterns.
Swordtails typically occupy the top level of the water column, although they can often be seen swimming and feeding in the middle and bottom levels as well. They are also not afraid to jump, so they must be kept in an aquarium with either a lid/hood/canopy or at least a significantly lowered water level. They will not eat or bother plants. They are safe with other peaceful fish as long as the other fish are not known to nip at the long tail of the male swordtails. Adult dwarf shrimp may be safe as well, some swordtails will attain a size large enough to consider such small shrimp prey. Larger, peaceful invertebrates can also make good tankmates. Swordtails are best kept in groups, particularly groups where females outnumber males since mature males will constantly pursue females for breeding.
While not a picky eater, the Albino Koi Kohaku Swordtail will thrive and remain very colorful on a varied diet of meaty foods. High-quality flake food, pellets, and frozen or freeze-dried tubifex and bloodworms will all be readily accepted.
What We Like About This Fish:
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All Aquatic Arts brand plants and animals come with a 100% live arrival guarantee, plus free email support!
For the safety of our animals, we only ship live fish, crabs, and select other inverts exclusively via UPS 1 Day Air. If your order contains this item, you will only see UPS 1 Day Air as a shipping option during checkout. If other items are in your cart that can ship with 2 day or standard shipping options the only shipping method you can still select is UPS 1 Day Air.
UPS 1 Day is a description of the duration of time a shipment will spend in transit once it has been shipped. This does not guarantee the package will be shipped the same or next day from which the order was placed.
Shipping Schedule for this service
Current Handling Time:
1-9 business days
Here at Aquatic Arts, we consider the welfare of the live animals we are shipping to be of the foremost importance. This process is much more involved than simply creating a shipping label and affixing it to a box. Depending on the order, it takes from 4 to 7 people to complete this process properly. We check the weather conditions here where they fly out of the Indianapolis UPS facility and the destination for each shipment. We start early each morning and go through a multi-step process to have the day's shipments prepared in time for the UPS pickup. The volume of orders in our system also affects the processing time. Therefore our stated handling time is 1-9 business days.
Shipping Rate
Pricing is by size of package needed to fill entire order and distance it must travel. It will be calculated at checkout.
