Wormfishes were a subfamily, Microdesminae, which are formerly classified in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Microdesmidae The Microdesmidae, the wormfishes and dartfishes, were a Family (biology), family of goby-like fishes in the order Gobiiformes, more recent workers have placed this taxon within the Gobiidae, although the researchers do not define the taxonomic s ...

and are also currently classified, with no intervening rank, in the family

Gobiidae Gobiidae or gobies is a family (biology), family of bony fish in the order (biology), order Gobiiformes, one of the largest fish families comprising over 2,000 species in more than 200 genus, genera. Most of gobiid fish are relatively small, typ ...

and the order

Gobiiformes Gobiiformes (meaning "goby-like") is an order of percomorph fish containing three suborders: Apogonoidei, Trichonotoidei, and Gobioidei. The order was formerly defined as containing only the gobies (now placed within the Gobioidei). However, ...

. They are found in shallow

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

waters, both marine and

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

, often burrowing in estuarine mud. They are small fishes, the largest species reaching only about 12 cm in length.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16941185 Microdesmidae Gobiidae