Careproctus

Careproctus is a genus of snailfishes found in benthic and benthopelagic habitats in the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Southern Oceans. Whether they truly are absent from the Indian Ocean (except for a couple of species in subantarctic waters) is unknown and might be an artifact of limited sampling. They range from shallow coastal seas in the far north of their range to the abyssal zone, at depths of . In the Northern Hemisphere they mostly live shallower than Paraliparis, but this pattern is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. Although almost entirely restricted to very cold waters, a single species, C. hyaleius, lives at hydrothermal vents.

Its generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek κάρα (kára) "face, head" and πρωκτός (prōktόs) "anus", therefore literally meaning "butt-face", because of the position of the anus under the head.