Fish were captured in the fish ladder of the Salto do Morais hydroelectric dam on the Tijuco River, part of the upper Parana basin, in the state of Minas Gerais, in order to evaluate their capacity to move up the ladder steps. The ladder has 25 steps (tanks), 78.3 m long and 10.8 m high. Over 41 species were captured in the region of the Salto do Morais dam, at least 34 of which were present in the ladder. However, there were few individuals of each species and only 2% of them reached the upper section of the ladder. This suggests that the ladder is selective for certain species, the most affected being the Pimelodidae family.