Alpha Swordtail Albino Red Care Guide
The Alpha Swordtail Albino Red is a premium, selectively bred strain of Xiphophorus hellerii, the classic livebearer that has been in the hobby for over a century. The “Alpha” line is bred for a deeper, more even red and a full, powerful body, while the albino trait gives these fish their soft pink-white eyes. They are active, peaceful, and refreshingly easy to keep, which is exactly why they make such a good centerpiece in a community tank. This guide covers how we keep them at the shop and at home in Key West.
Quick Stats
- Scientific name: Xiphophorus hellerii (Alpha Albino Red strain)
- Adult size: Males 4 to 5 inches including the sword, females up to 5 inches
- Minimum tank: 20 gallons; 29 gallons or more for a group
- Temperature: 72–82°F
- pH: 7.0–8.3 (hard, alkaline water)
- Hardness: 12–30 dGH
- Diet: Omnivore that needs vegetable matter
- Temperament: Peaceful and active; males spar but rarely harm each other
- Lifespan: 3–5 years with good care
Tank and water
Swordtails are hard, alkaline water fish, the same as our endlers and the opposite of rams and tetras. Florida tap water suits them straight out of the dechlorinator. If your water is soft, add crushed coral or aragonite to keep the KH and GH up. Stable water matters more than chasing a perfect number; aim to hold the tank between pH 7.4 and 8.0 consistently.
Give them room to swim. These are strong, fast fish that cruise the open water all day, so a 20-gallon is the realistic minimum for a small group and a 29-gallon or larger is better. Plant the edges and back, leave an open lane down the middle, and keep a tight lid. Swordtails are accomplished jumpers and will find any gap. Floating plants give fry somewhere to hide and take the edge off bright lighting.
Tankmates and stocking ratio
Alpha Swordtails are peaceful and get along with most calm community fish. Good tankmates include other hard-water livebearers (platies, mollies, guppies of the same water type), peaceful tetras and rasboras that share their temperature range, Corydoras, and most snails and shrimp. Avoid fin-nippers, slow long-finned fish that a sparring male might harass, and aggressive cichlids.
As with all livebearers, watch your sex ratio. Keep two or three females per male so no single female is chased constantly, or run a male-only group. Males will display and spar with each other to establish a pecking order; in a tank with enough space and sight breaks this is harmless posturing, not real fighting.
Diet
Swordtails are omnivores that lean herbivorous, and that vegetable side is the part people forget. Feed a quality flake or pellet daily and rotate in algae wafers, blanched spinach or zucchini, and spirulina to keep their digestion and color in good shape. Frozen treats like brine shrimp, daphnia, and bloodworm two or three times a week round out the diet and bring out the red. They are enthusiastic eaters and rarely refuse a meal.
Sexing and breeding
Sexing is easy once they mature. Males develop the long sword extension on the lower edge of the tail and a gonopodium (a modified anal fin), while females are larger, fuller-bodied, and have a normal fan-shaped tail. Like all livebearers they breed readily. Females hold sperm and deliver drops of 20 to 80 live fry roughly every four to six weeks.
If you want fry to survive, give them cover. A heavily planted tank or a clump of floating guppy grass lets some fry escape; for a real harvest, move a pregnant female to a breeder net or a separate planted tank. Feed fry crushed flake and baby brine shrimp and they grow quickly.
A note on the Alpha line
This is a premium strain, and it shows in the price. You are paying for generations of careful selection for color depth, sword length, and body shape. Buy from a source that keeps the line clean, because crossing them back to ordinary swordtails dilutes everything that makes the Alpha worth keeping. Ours come from stock we trust and we keep our breeders separated to protect the line.
Ordering from us
Swordtails are hardy shippers and travel well in moderate weather. We follow our standard Shipping & Acclimation procedure and drip acclimate over 45 to 60 minutes. Because of their wide natural range they handle parameter shifts better than most fish, but a slow, gentle acclimation is still the right call for a fish at this price point. For setup help, see our Water Chemistry guide. Questions? Email help@jojoaquatics.com.
— The JoJo Aquatics team, Key West, Florida
