Myxobolidae is a family of myxosporean parasites which typically infect freshwater fishes, and includes the economically significant species, Myxobolus cerebralis.
They have been shown to have a complex life cycle, involving an alternate stage in an invertebrate, typically an annelid or polychaete worm.
[citation needed] Myxosporean spores of genera belonging to the Myxobolidae are flattened parallel to the sutural line.
In some genera, the spore walls are drawn out into long processes which are thought to slow sinking through the water column.
[citation needed] Actinosporean stages which have been linked to members of the Myxobolidae have a single central "style" and three processes or "tails", around 200 micrometers long, projecting from this.