Trends in the life-history styles of vertebrates: an introduction to the second ALHS volume.- Editorial.- Underwater observations of piranhas in western Brazil.- Invited reviews.- Alternative life-history styles of cartilaginous fishes in time and space.- Clupeoid life-history styles in variable environments.- Alternative life-history styles of some African cichlid fishes.- Alternative life-history styles of Japanese freshwater sculpins revisited.- Alternative reproductive styles in seabreams (Pisces: Sparidae).- Patterns of gonad structure in hermaphroditic gobies (Teleostei: Gobiidae).- Comparisons between the roles played by estuaries in the life cycles of fishes in temperate Western Australia and Southern Africa.- Full papers.- The proportion of different eco-ethological sections of reproductive guilds of fishes in some African inland waters.- A functional analysis of grazing in parrotfishes (family Scaridae): the ecological implications.- The reproductive biology and early development of the African pike, Hepsetus odoe, in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.- Reproductive and habitat isolation between two populations of the striated spined loach.- Alternative reproductive behaviour in fishes, with particular reference to Lepomis macrochira and Pseudocrenilabrus philander.- Genetic divergence between the sibling species of river-sculpin, Cottus amblystomopsis and C. nozawae, with special reference to speciation.- Life-history styles and somatic allocation in iteroparous arctic charr and semelparous pink salmon.- Sexual selection, reproductive behavior, and speciation in the mbuna species flock of Lake Malawi (Pisces: Cichlidae).- A preliminary investigation of sex change in Pseudotropheus lombardoi (Pisces: Cichlidae).- Life-history styles of fishes in South African estuaries.- Conclusion.- The conservation of alternative life-history styles: a conclusion to the second ALHS volume.- Species and subject index.- Advertisement of the ‘ALHS of Animals’ Volume 1.