[3] Smallscale archerfish live in the tropical Indo-Pacific region and are potamodromous, moving between fresh and brackish water through their lifetimes.

[4] Like other archerfish, they have dark, wedge-shaped bands or spots on their flanks,[4] which can be yellow to silvery.

[3][5] Smallscale archerfish inhabit large rivers and estuaries in Asia and the Indo-Pacific.

They are distributed throughout the Mekong and Chao Phraya river basins as well as waters off the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo.

[3] They can be found near the shores of moving and standing waters, usually with overhanging plants.

[2][10] In Thailand smallscale archerfish is called Pla Suea Pon Nam Nakhon Sawan (Thai: ปลาเสือพ่นน้ำนครสวรรค์; lit: Nakhon Sawan archerfish) or Pla Suea Pon Nam Leung (ปลาเสือพ่นน้ำเหลือง; yellow archerfish) because it is wild caught from Bueng Boraphet, Nakhon Sawan Province, and because it has a bright yellow colour.