[5] It is a tropical, marine eel which is known from the Indo-West Pacific, including Somalia, Tanzania, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Polynesia, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kenya, Madagascar, the Philippines, Malaysia, Mozambique, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Vietnam, and southern Yemen.

[4][1] It is an anadromous species and spawns in freshwater, often in rice paddies during the rainy season, earning it its common name.

[4] The rice-paddy eel is of minor commercial interest to fisheries; it is caught in bag nets and marketed fresh.

[4] Its diet consists of bony fish and crabs such as Uca annulipes;[6] as a nocturnal creature it forages actively during the night.

[4] Due to its widespread, albeit thinly populated distribution, and lack of major threats, the IUCN redlist currently lists the rice-paddy eel as Least Concern.