Sperm cryopreservation for fishes with internal fertilization is essentially unexplored although many species of these fishes are valuable biomedical research models. To explore methods for sperm cryopreservation within the live-bearing genus Xiphophorus, this study used X. helleri to evaluate the effects of cryoprotectant, osmotic pressure, cooling rate, equilibration time, and sperm-to-extender ratio. Sperm motility and survival duration after thawing showed significant differences among different cryoprotectants with the highest motility at 10 min after thawing obtained with 14% glycerol. With subsequent use of 14% glycerol as the cryoprotectant, the highest motility after thawing was observed with Hanks' balanced salt solution (HBSS) at 300 mOsmol/kg. Samples cooled from 5 to −80 °C at 20 °C/min yielded the highest post-thaw motility although no significant difference was found in the first 4 h after thawing for cooling rates across the range of 20-35 °C/min. Evaluation of equilibration time revealed no significant difference between 20 min and 2 h, but the highest motility at 10 min after thawing was found with a 20-min equilibration. Dilution ratios of sperm-to-extender at 1:20, 1:60, and 1:120 showed no significant differences in motility and survival duration after thawing, but the dilution of sperm solutions with HBSS (320 mOsmol/kg) immediately after thawing reduced the decline of sperm motility, and significantly prolonged the survival duration. Based on these findings, the highest average sperm motility (77%) at 10 min after thawing was obtained when sperm were suspended in HBSS at 300 mOsmol/kg with 14% glycerol as cryoprotectant, diluted at a ratio of sperm to HBSS-glycerol of 1:20, equilibrated for 10 min, cooled at 20 °C/min from 5 to −80 °C before being plunged in liquid nitrogen, and thawed in a 40 °C water bath for 7 s. If diluted immediately after thawing, sperm frozen by the protocol above retained continuous motility after thawing for more than 8 days when stored at 4 °C. The first studies of fish sperm cryopreservation were published 50 years ago [5], and since then more than 200 fish species have been studied [26,39]. This research effort has yielded techniques that are being applied with varying levels of success for fishes around the world. However, most work has focused on large-bodied culture and sport fishes, such as salmon and trout of the family salmonidae [29], carps of the family cyprinidae [11], and catfishes of the families claridae, ictaluridae, pangasiidae, and siluridae [35]. Small teleost fishes are studied much less except for the research models zebrafish (Danio rerio) and Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) [1]. Published studies of sperm cryopreservation of small livebearing fish are completely lacking except for our initial research on swordtail sperm [12]. Live-bearing fishes as a group are distinct from other fishes for many reasons, most notably for internal fertilization in which males transfer sperm in packages (spermatophores) to females which store the sp...