This book is a biodiversity inventory of the freshwater fishes of South and Central America, including the Caribbean islands. A total of 64 authors from South America, North America and Europe contributed to the taxonomic summaries of each family or subfamily of Neotropical fishes. Entries for each fish species include valid name and synonyms, author, year and page of original descriptions, type locality, and catalogue number and depository of primary type specimens. In addition, contextual information for each species includes maximum length, geographical distribution, countries of occurrence, common names, and remarks and references. A general introduction and a list of references complete the chapter for each family.