See text Opisthocentrinae is a subfamily of marine ray-finned fishes, classified within the family Stichaeidae, the pricklebacks or shannies.

Opisthocentrinae was first put forward as a subfamily in 1898 by the American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann.

[4] The subfamily contains the following genera:[5] Opisthocentrinae fishes are characterised by having elongate bodies which are relatively deep.

The small pelvic fins have a single spine and 3 soft rays, although in some taxa these may be vestigial or absent, e.g. in Kasatkia.

[5] The smallest species is the saddled prickleback (Lumpenopsis clitella) which has a maximum published standard length of 5.6 cm (2.2 in) and the largest is Pholidapus dybowskii which has a maximum published total length of 46 cm (18 in).