They do not swim well and are generally found crawling in marginal vegetation.
The site is mostly standing water which is surrounded by broadleaved woodland, scrub and the margins support marginal vegetation.
The fishes are usually found on leaves and stalks of marginal vegetation, frequently adhering by means of their pelvic fins.
The most important breeding habitat is lakes or ponds with good marginal vegetation.
It associates with aquatic macrophytes or the submerged portion of marginal vegetation.
They developed natural resistance to disease and are able to forage on marginal vegetation.
Most of the site is still in operational use so marginal vegetation, where it occurs, is generally sparse.
The larvae live in unpolluted, standing fresh waters, just beneath the surface film, usually amongst marginal aquatic vegetation .
It was noted in the same study, that the loch's "marginal vegetation" of reedswamp grasses and other plants present around it were still "flourishing".
A bird exclosure was built here in the mid 1990s to protect an area of marginal vegetation, preventing water plants being damaged by coots.