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 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 6 to 5,459 m (20–17,910 ft). 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.

The snailfishes or sea snails are a family of marine ray-finned fishes. These fishes make up the Liparidae, which is classified within the order Scorpaeniformes.