Common corks are found in lakes, swamps, rivers, and water channels down to the paddy fields. These fish prey on various small fish, insects, and various other aquatic animals including tadpoles and frogs.
Often the corks are flooded into the trenches around the house, or entering fish-keeping ponds and becoming pests that prey on pet fish there. If the fields, ponds or trenches dry out, these fish will try to move to another place, or if forced to, will bury themselves in the mud until the place is back watering. Therefore, these fish are often encountered 'walking' on land, especially at night in the dry season, looking for another place that is still watery. This phenomenon is because cork has the ability to breathe directly from the air, using a kind of labyrinth organ (such as in catfish or betok) but more primitive.