Clingfishes are primarily found near the shore in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, including marginal seas such as the Mediterranean, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and Gulf of California. The greatest species richness is in tropical and warm temperate regions, but the range of a few extends into colder waters, like "Diplecogaster bimaculata" (north to Norway), "Apletodon dentatus", "Lepadogaster candolii" and "L. purpurea" (all three north to Scotland; the last formerly mistaken for the mostly Mediterranean "L. lepadogaster"), "Gobiesox maeandricus" (north to Alaska), "Gobiesox marmoratus" and "Sicyases sanguineus" (both to southernmost South America), and "Gastrocymba quadriradiata" (from New Zealand's subantarctic islands).