Collation of available data on African freshwater fish species traits gleaned from publicly available repositories (IUCN Red List, FishBase) including data on life history traits, distributions, habitat use, dietary preferences, spawning behaviour, migratory behaviour, estimates of population size, and estimates of environmental tolerances, among others. Also includes data on threats experienced, human uses, and climate change projections across each species' range as predicted by the IPCC 5th assessment report.