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The species is native to central and western Thailand with historic records from the lower Mae Klong, lower Chao Phraya and Bangpakong rivers, all of which drain into the northern tip of the Gulf of Thailand.

Type locality is ‘Small tributary of Menam Chao Phya River, near Paknampo [Nakorn-Sawan], central Thailand’ and the fish was considered abundant at the time (1931).

It was officially declared extinct in 1996 with collection for the aquarium trade (although there appears to be no evidence to support this), agricultural and domestic pollution, plus other forms of habitat alteration such as dam construction typically considered to blame, but in 2011 a small, highly-localised population was observed in the Chao Phraya basin.

In 2014 it was confirmed to be extant in the Mae Klong system as well, with a single specimen collected from the river’s main channel close to the Maeklong Dam in Muang District, Kanchanaburi Province. Its current status is thus unclear and it is considered critically endangered pending further occurrence records.