Taiaroidae is a family of deep-water, solitary marine octocorals in the phylum Cnidaria. It is a monotypic family containing a single genus Taiaroa and a single species, Taiaroa tauhou. The species was first described by the marine zoologists Frederick M. Bayer and Katherine Margaret Muzik in 1976. The scientific name derives from "Taiaroa", the submarine canyon off New Zealand in which the first specimens were found and "tauhou", the Maori word for "strange".