Climbing Perch is a common fish inhabiting tanks, ponds, swamps, streams and some time even in lakes which have connected to the sea. It is distributed in both wet and dry lowlands. Climbing Perch is one of the most hardy fish which can survive in extremely unfavorable water conditions and it has been recorded that they can travel certain distance overland from one water body to another. However tree climbing habit attributed to this fish by some authors is not reliably observed. As per Deraniyagala it visits newly sown paddy fields at night to feed on the grain (Deraniyagala P.E.P., 1952). It feeds on macrophytic vegetation, fish fry and shrimps (Pethiyagoda, R., 1991).
