Butidae is a family of sleeper gobies in the orderGobiiformes. The family was formerly classified as a subfamily of the Eleotridae but the 5th Edition of Fishes of the World classifies it as a family in its own right.[2] Molecular phylogenetic analyses have demonstrated that the Butidae are a sister clade to the clade containing the families Gobiidae and Gobionellidae and that the Eleotridae is a sister to both of these clades. This means that the Eloetridae as formerly classified was paraphyletic and that its subfamilies should be raised to the status of families.[3]
The species in the Butidae are largely restricted to tropical and sub-tropical waters of Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. They are especially diverse in New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand where they can be important components of brackish and freshwater ecosystems.[3] They are mostly quite small species but the marbled goby (Oxyeleotris marmorata) is a freshwater species of Buitdae from Southeast Asia that can grow to 65 cm (25.6 in) long and is an important food fish.[4][5]
^ abChristine Thacker (2011). "Chapter 1.5 Systematics of Butidae and Eleotridae". In Robert Patzner; James L. Van Tassell; Marcelo Kovacic; B. G. Kapoor (eds.). The Biology of Gobies(PDF). CRC Press. ISBN978-1578084364. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-07-28. Retrieved 2018-07-22.
^Riehl, R. & Baensch, H.A. (1996): Aquarium Atlas (Volume 1). Voyageur Press. p. 992. ISBN978-3-88244-050-8
