Hawaii is the tuxedo form of the variatus platy, a broad dark band down the flank with color at both ends. Suppliers disagree on the rest, so the name covers dark blue fish with sunset fins and golden-yellow fish with red tails. Males carry the band and the fin color, while females from the same line stay much plainer. It is frequently sold as a hi-fin, so check the dorsal in the listing photo.
In the wild
Hawaii is a farm strain, not a place: the fish is a selected line of a Mexican species. The German importer Aquarium Glaser describes it as the tuxedo form of the variatus. Good fish show a golden-yellow body, a broad black band and a deep red caudal. No breeder, country or decade is recorded for the strain.
Good to know
The dark flank is a band of dense black pigment laid over the body color. It is the same kind of tuxedo block used in other platy and guppy strains. Selection is on band width and a clean edge, so spawns give plenty of narrow, broken or crooked bands. Fish sold with the tall dorsal carry the hi-fin gene on top of the color line, a separate trait.
Did you know
The tall dorsal on a hi-fin Hawaii traces back to one swordtail. Hobby histories credit a breeder named Simpson in southern California, who worked a single long-dorsaled male into a fixed line around the turn of the 1960s, and the fish sold as the Simpson swordtail before the trait was moved into platies. The gene is dominant and lethal in double dose, so no hi-fin line ever breeds fully true.
Weekly picks
Tank mates
Hawaii platy is a peaceful, social species that keeps to the middle. These picks share a community profile with it, are safe together in both directions, and overlap on water type, temperature and pH.
2.8 in (7 cm)15 gal (55 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)
2 in (5 cm)16 gal (60 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)
4.1 in (10.5 cm)29 gal (110 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)
2.8 in (7 cm)24 gal (90 L)68–81°F (20–27°C)
5.9 in (15 cm)24 gal (90 L)68–82°F (20–28°C)
3.5 in (9 cm)29 gal (110 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)