It is found in the White Nile drainage in Sudan, the Nile Delta in Egypt, the Wembere and Malagarasi Rivers in Tanzania and in the Lake Victoria basin in Uganda and Tanzania.

It can be found in swamps, irrigation ditches, brooks and small river.

[1] In captivity the eggs develop in about two weeks with the young reaching sexual maturity when they attain an age of 7–8 months.

[2] The Nile killifish was described in 1901 as Haplochilus schoelleri by the Belgian-British ichthyologist George Albert Boulenger (1858-1937) with the type locality being given as Lake No in South Sudan.

[3] The specific name honours William Leonard Stevenson Loat (1871-1932) a British archaeologist and naturalist who was the superintendent of the survey party responsible for collecting the type.