This species has true lungs in addition to gills, and uses a blowhole-like organ called a spiracle to take breaths of atmospheric oxygen (a trait it shares with stem-tetrapods).

This allows P. palmas to survive poorly oxygenated water conditions—such as in dried-out seasonal pools—or even entirely on land indefinitely provided that their spiracles and gills remain damp.

One of its notable stabilomorphic traits is its accessory olfactory organ—an internal structure that has become vestigial or nonexistent in most extant fishes.

Due to its retention of this organ and elongate, nostril-like structures called nares, P. polli has a very precise sense of smell.

[2] Despite historically being taxonomically associated with P. palmas, recent molecular studies have placed P. polli as a sister taxon to P.

As nocturnal fish that hail from densely vegetated waters, they appreciate a lot of shade and places to hide.