On the occasion of the 10th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference (http://ipfc10.criobe.pf/) to be held in Tahiti in October 2017, it seemed timely to update Randall’s 1985 list of the fishes known from French Polynesia. Many studies focusing on fishes in this area have been published since 1985, but Randall’s list remains the authoritative source. Herein we present an expanded species list of 1,301 fishes now known to occur in French Polynesia and we review the expeditions and information sources responsible for the over 60% increase in the number of known species since the publication of Randall’s checklist in 1985. Our list of the fishes known from French Polynesia includes only those species with a reliably verifiable presence in these waters. In cases where there was any doubt about the identity of a species, or of the reliability of a reported sighting, the species was not included in our list.