Understanding the effects of land use on river biota is important for riverbank management and river ecosystem restoration. To assess the relationship between land-use change and the functional groups of fish communities, 40 sample sites were investigated in the Taizi River Basin, China, in May 2012. The results indicated that the dominant species of fish in the Taizi River Basin were Phoxinus lagowskii, Nemachilus nudus, Abbottina rivularis, and Zacco platypus, which accounted for 34.6%, 5.3%, 5.4%, and 7.3% of the total fish, respectively. In addition, we observed some rare species such as Lampetra morii, Huigobio chinssuensis, and Hypseleotris swinhonis. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that dissolved oxygen, index of substrate(IOS), electric conductivity, total dissolved solids, habitat evaluation score, and sediment concentration had stronger effects on the whole fish community than water pH, velocity, flow, and depth. One way ANOVA analysis revealed that the habitat characteristics exhibited significant differences among the four land use types. In sample sites with forest land use type, conductivity, total dissolved solids, and sediment sand composition were 105.05 μs/cm, 80.38 mg/L, 65.00 ml, and 0.00, respectively, which were lower than those of other sample sites. Water depth, flow rate, and the average percentage of silt were highest in sample sites with farmland as main land use type, which were 186.83 m, 80.11 m³ , and 5333.33 mL, respectively. Functional groups of fish were divided into five types (18 subcategories), with significant differences among the four land use types. The percentages of piscivores, stones, feeding insects, and sticky eggs were highest in sample sites with forest as main land use type, whereas the percentages of herbivores and their underlying functional groups were highest in the forest and farmland mixing zone. The percentages of sand, middle water layer, and nesting functional group were higher in sample sites with farmland as main land use type, and the percentages of silt, tolerance to pollution, lower water layer, omnivorous species were higher in sample sites with urban as main land use type. This study showed that the number of individuals of fish was positively correlated with the habitat quality and was negatively correlated with the roughness of sediment type. Different types of land use can lead to changes in the water environment, which in turn can result to changes in the functional groups of fish communities. The habitat quality of forest land and the combination of forest and farmland was the best at maintaining the integrity of fish community structure. Therefore, for land use planning, it is necessary to consider forest land and the combination of forest and farmland.