The dominant male is usually first to eat among the school. Live-bearers also demonstrate courtship behavior, a rarity among fish. This behavior can vary among live-bearers. In many species such as the guppies and swordtails, the male swims back and forth rapidly in front of the female, bending his body towards her. This can often lead towards the next step, copulation.
Copulation occurs the same way in most of the live-bearing species.
In copulation, the male swims alongside the female and fertilizes her with his anal fin. As mentioned before, the anal fin serves as the copulatory organ, the gonopodium. The male briefly introduces his gonopodium into the pore of the female. One out of ten attempts is usually successful. Interestingly, the female body has the ability to store male sperm for future fertilizations.