Editing Livebearers (section)

==Aberrant livebearers and mouthbrooders==
[[Seahorse]]s and [[pipefish]] can be defined as livebearers, although in these cases the males incubate the eggs rather than the females. In many cases, the eggs are dependent on the male for oxygen and nutrition so these fish can be further defined as viviparous livebearers. <ref name="Cole2010">{{cite book |last=Cole |first=Kathleen S. |title=Reproduction and Sexuality in Marine Fishes: Patterns and Processes |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |date=2010 |pages=129–150 |isbn=978-0-520-26433-5}}</ref>

Many [[cichlid]]s are [[mouthbrooder]]s, with the female (or more rarely the male) incubating the eggs in the mouth. Compared with other cichlids, these species produce fewer but bigger eggs, and when they emerge, the fry is better developed and has higher survivability. Because the eggs are protected from the environment but do not absorb nutrients from the parent, this condition is [[Convergent evolution|analogous]] to, though not [[Homology (biology)|identical]] with, ovoviviparity.<ref name="Keenleyside1991">{{cite book |last=Keenleyside |first=Miles H.A. |title=Cichlid Fishes: Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution |publisher=Chapman & Hall |location=London |date=1991 |pages=191–210 |isbn=978-0-412-32200-6}}</ref>