Three categories (freshwater, amphidromous, and marine fishes) of Taiwanese fishes are analyzed on the basis of zoogeographic elements, viz. China element, Indo-China element, Indo-West Pacific element, Indo-Pacific element, North-Pacific element, Japan-Oregon element, and circumtropical element. Freshwater fishes, which include the China and Indo-China elements, are distributed on part of the boundary area between the Palaearctic and Oriental regions of Wallace (1876). Diadromous fishes include the North-Pacific, Indo-China and Indo-West Pacific elements. Taiwanese salmon, a landlocked (initially diadromous) species that became established in Taiwan between 0.5 my B.P. and the early Pleistocene, is recognized as a distinct taxon included within the Oncorhynchus masou complex, which comprises here three species and two subspecies, viz. Oncorhynchus masou masou (Sancheoneo, Songeo, Sakura-masu or Yamame), O. masou ishikawae (Satsuki-masu or Amago), O. sp. (Biwa-masu), and O. formosanus (Taiwanese salmon), based on molecular, morphological and biological studies. Marine fishes are discussed under the following headings, brackish-water fishes (fishes of brackish waters and seas adjacent to continental coastlines, North Pacific and Indo-West Pacific elements; fishes of brackish waters and seas primarily around islands, Indo-West Pacific element), reef fishes (fishes of inshore reefs along continental coastlines from 0 to ca.100 m depth, Indo-West Pacific element; fishes of inshore reefs primarily around islands from 0 to ca.100 m depth, Indo-West Pacific element; fishes of offshore reefs along continental shelf edges from ca.150 to 300 m depth, circumtropical and Indo-Pacific elements; fishes of offshore reefs primarily around islands from ca.150 to 300 m depth, Indo-Pacific element), demersal fishes (fishes on continental shelves shallower than ca.150 m depth, Indo-West Pacific and Japan-Oregon elements; fishes on edges and upper continental slopes from ca.150 m to 500 m depth, Indo-West Pacific, Indo-Pacific, and circumtropical elements; fishes on lower continental slopes to abyssal plains from ca.500 m to 6,000 m depth, circumtropical element and rarely Indo-Pacific element), pelagic fishes (epipelagic fishes from 0 to ca.150 m depth, Indo-West Pacific, Indo-Pacific or circumtropical elements; meso- and bathypelagic fishes from ca.150 to 3,000 m depth, circumtropical element). The distribution of Taiwanese marine fishes are influenced by the Kuroshio Current, low-salinity and low-temperature waters from mainland China, and sea-bottom topography.