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Livebearers (Guppies, Swordtails, Platties and Others) -- New Books



N-317 Guppies, Mollies, Platys by Hieronimus 1993, paperback, 72 pages $6.95
Health care, proper equipment, breeding, and maintaining a healthful environment are among many topics the experienced hobbyist and beginner can learn about. Thirty-five striking color photos and 30 black-and-white line drawings included.
wpe50.jpg (1890 bytes) RE-609 Guppies Keeping & Breeding Them in Captivity by Mozart 1996, paperback, 64 pages,  Focuses on keeping and breeding them in captivity. There's information by experts on aquarium set-up, water quality, feeding, varieties within a species, and the intricacies of breeding adults and raising fry.  $5.09
wpe35.jpg (1802 bytes) KW-058 Guppies by Whitern hardback, 93 pages, 61 Color photos, This book, illustrated with many full-color photos and drawings, presents sensible, easy-to-follow recommendations about selecting and caring for Guppies. It concentrates on providing readers with the information they need and want-all given in an interesting and easy-to read style. $9.36
wpe34.jpg (1871 bytes) KW-049 Livebearers by Whitern 64 pages, hardback, over 50 Color photos, This book, illustrated with many full-color photos and drawings, presents sensible, easy-to-follow recommendations about selecting and caring for Livebearers. It concentrates on providing readers with the information they need and want-all given in an interesting and easy-to read style. $9.36
wpe51.jpg (1861 bytes) RE-623 Mollies Keeping and Breeding Them in Captivity By Glass 64 pages, paperback, many Color photos,  Focuses on keeping and breeding them in captivity. There's information by experts on aquarium set-up, water quality, feeding, varieties within a species, and the intricacies of breeding adults and raising fry.  $5.95
N-907 My Guppy by Frank Schafer 2003, paperback, 72 pages $10.95
Sex, Color, and Mate Choice in Guppies By Anne E. Houde 1997, 224 pages, 6 halftones, 50 lines illustrations, 6 tables
N-610PB paperback $39.95
N-610HB hardback $55.50

The Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) is well known to biologists and home aquarium enthusiasts alike. Scientists have studied guppies for most of the twentieth century. Some of the most intensive recent research has been conducted by behavioral ecologists, who have found that the guppy mating system makes guppies especially useful in the study of sexual selection and mate choice. By observing guppy behavior in aquaria, researchers hope to obtain new insights into how selection operates in natural populations. Here Anne Houde summarizes and synthesizes the scientific work done to date, relates the empirical findings on guppies to current themes in sexual selection theory, and suggests new directions for future research.

This book describes the sexual behavior of guppies and examines how mate choice by females leads to the evolution of the conspicuous colors and the courtship displays for which guppies are widely recognized. The author shows that female guppies prefer males with bright color patterns, especially those with orange spots, and that the mating preferences of females lead to sexual selection on both color patterns and courtship displays of males. Houde's work addresses a number of areas that are of interest in sexual selection, including the remarkable degree of plasticity and evolutionary lability of sexual behavior in guppies, geographic variation in mating preferences, possible mechanisms for the evolution of female mating preferences, and the role of sexual selection in speciation. In conclusion, the author explores the implications of her findings for behavioral ecologists who study sexual selection in other species.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
 Acknowledgments  
1 Introduction: The Guppy as a Model System 3 
2 Reproductive Biology and Sexual Behavior 29 
3 Choosy Females and Competing Males: Mechanisms of Sexual Selection 45 
4 Male Courtship Behavior 80 
5 Evolution of Female Choice 1: Direct Selection, Adaptive Plasticity, and Sensory Drive 104 
6 Evolution of Female Choice 2: Indirect Selection, Variation, and Correlations 123 
7 Summary and Prospects 155 
Appendix Experimental Methods: How to Build a Better Bordello 165 
 References 177 
 Author Index 201 
 Subject Index 205 
 Taxonomic Index 209 

wpe24.jpg (1941 bytes) TS-131 Swordtails and Platies by Axelrod and Wischnath 192 pages, over 420 photos, hardback,  The authors of this magnificent volume have discussed, species by species, variety by variety, all of the known forms existing at the present time. They have illustrated them with outstanding color photographs, including their habitats, and told precisely where they can be found in Central America, mainly Mexico, so you can collect your own. This book also contains chapters on Guidelines for Judging Swordtails and Platies, a subject which has NEVER been adequately covered and which can serve as a guide for fish competitions all over the world, and Tail Patterns, a subject never covered as such. All in all, this is the most complete and up-to-date book on the subject of one of the world's most popular aquarium fishes. Its message is simply that these so-called 'beginner's fishes' are hardly for beginners, but are, in reality, for the most advanced and skillful hobbyist. $57.53 
wpe56.jpg (1964 bytes) RE-616 Sworddtails Keeping and Breeding Them in Captivity By Axelrod and Gordon paperback,  Focuses on keeping and breeding them in captivity. There's information by experts on aquarium set-up, water quality, feeding, varieties within a species, and the intricacies of breeding adults and raising fry.  $5.09

Livebearers (Guppies, Swordtails, Platties and Others)  Used Books


U-115 Livebearers by Whitern 1979, hardback, 93 pages $10.00
wpe1C.jpg (1595 bytes) U-64 Live Bearing Aquarium Fishes by Jacobs Covers 156 species, 1971, hardback, 460 pages. $30.00