Check List of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America

The objective of this publication (abbreviated as CLOFFSCA) was to provide an inventory of the freshwater fishes of South and Central America. To this end, 64 contributors pooled their knowledge and scientific expertise to list 4475 valid species and estimate that there are still about 1550 undescribed species that eventually will be added to this list. 

These numbers are broken down by family in table 1. The three most species-rich families roughly follow a ratio of 2:1, two described species for every undescribed species (Characidae 952:400; Loricariidae 673:300, and Cichlidae 406:155), whereas a number of families have no undescribed species expected and only one family, the Synbranchidae, has more undescribed species than described (4:10).