Variety of Guppy

Tuxedo guppy

Poecilia reticulata

One of 9 varieties of Poecilia reticulata · See all varieties →

Also known as Blonde Tuxedo Guppy, Pink Tuxedo Guppy, Golden Tuxedo Guppy

FreshwaterBrackishFish

Varieties · Poecilia reticulata

See all 9 →

Care at a glance

Temperature: 64–82°F; 18–28°C
pH: 6.8–7.8
Adult size: 2.4 in; 6 cm
Minimum tank: 13 gal; 50 L

Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Middle
Difficulty: Beginner
Breeding: Easy
Rarity: Very common
Family: Poeciliidae

Overview

Tuxedo means the rear half of the body is dark, roughly from the dorsal back, with the front end and the tail carrying the color. Shops stack the label with those colors: Blonde Tuxedo, Pink Tuxedo, Golden Tuxedo. How far forward the dark block runs varies between suppliers. It is one of the easier patterns to grade through a bag before you buy.

In the wild

The dark block is a domestic trait, not a wild guppy marking. It comes from the half-black stock that guppy genetics has long called Nigrocaudatus II, kept distinct from full black Nigrocaudatus I. No breeder, country or decade is documented for the Tuxedo label itself. Read it as a trade name sitting over that older half-black line.

Good to know

Hobby sources disagree on how half-black is inherited, calling it an autosomal recessive in some strains and Y-linked in others. A 1999 study in Zoological Science looked at one Tuxedo strain and found the black caudal peduncle behaving as a single sex-linked dominant gene. It sat at a different locus from the red tail gene in the same fish. That study reported both patterns expressed in males and females rather than in males alone.

Did you know

The dark block and the tail color travel separately. In that 1999 Tuxedo study, the black caudal peduncle and the red tail sat at different loci across the X and Y chromosomes. That is why breeders can move new tail colors onto the same tuxedo body.

Weekly picks

Tank mates

Tuxedo guppy 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.

Check the full mix in the stocking calculator