Abstract.—Distributions are provided for 1168 species of fishes that live in the freshwater drainage systems overlying the Guiana Shield in Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname. This total includes representatives of 376 genera, 49 families, and 15 orders, with five orders (Characiformes, Siluriformes, Perciformes, Gymnotiformes, and Cyprinodontiformes) accounting for 96.7% of the diversity. Drainage systems on the Guiana Shield are home to approximately 23% of the freshwater species known from Central and South America. A summary is provided of ichthyological collecting on the Shield along with summaries of major publications dealing with fishes of each region on the Shield. Factors that may account for the high species level diversity in that region are discussed. Methods for photographing fishes are detailed, and a photographic album of 127 species of 46 families that occur on the Shield is included.