Bovichtus is a genus of fish in the family Bovichtidae found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean.

Bovichtus was formally described as a genus in 1832 by the French zoologist Achille Valenciennes with Callionymus diacanthus, which had been described by the Scottish botanist and officer in the British Army Dugald Carmichael in 1819 with the type locality given as Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic,[2] as the type species.

[7] They are normally mottled in colour and their gill membranes direct the exiting water upwards, an adaptation for a sedentary benthic lifestyle.

[8] Bovichtus are mainly benthic species, waiting on the substrate to ambush prey and have been seen perched underneath or upside down on surfaces, presumably using their adapted pectoral and anal fins to grip with.

At least one species has a pelagic larval phase which allows for dispersal and may account for the relatively wide distribution of the genus compared to the other two genera in the family Bovichtidae.