This new reexamined and corrected fauna displays an up to date account of knowledge on the systematics of the fresh and brackish water fishes of West Africa. Its aim is to help ichthyologists with the identification of the species they collect. It is made practical and didactic by paying special attention to iconography and as far as possibly by giving priority to the simplest and easiest observable criteria. West Africa, from the Senegal River basin in the North West to the Chad basin in the North East and the Cross River in the South, includes the majority of the Sahelo-Sudan basins, except for the Nile, and the Western Guinea area, covering the Atlantic Coastal Basins from Guinea to Western Cote d'Ivoire. Specialists of each group or family were called to write the chapters. To facilitate the access of this fauna, an English translation is provided for all text. Summary tables, comparing morphological characters and measures for the different species, complement the identification keys. Distribution maps are provided for freshwater species. At present, 64 families are described, including 192 genera and 584 valid species. A reduced paper version is presented in two volumes; the integral CD-ROM version is inserted on the back cover of the second volume.