[3] Southern pygmy perch are found in a wide variety of freshwater habitats so long as they have aquatic vegetation.

They can be found in both still or slow flowing waters and they have been recorded in low current streams, lakes, billabongs, ditches, impoundments, swamps and ephemeral wetlands.

[3] It is a mainly carnivorous species with its diet mostly consisting of small invertebrates such as mosquito larvae and other aquatic insects, as well as Daphnia and other crustaceans.

As they mature they prey on larger insects including mayflies but their small mouth means that they do not consume many other fishes.

As of 2007[update] there were only three known locations where it was still found: in the Lachlan River catchment, north of Yass; as near Holbrook, and Albury[5] (Tumbarumba?).

[9] The reasons for the decline and continuing threats to this species includes invasive alien fish species such as eastern mosquitofish, brown trout,[5] European carp, redfin,[6] and European perch, as well as cold water pollution, and habitat fragmentation and destruction.

[3] In August 2023, a group of volunteers working with OzFish Unlimited and the local council undertook the translocation of 200 fish to Oolong Creek, to boost the population there.