The cockatoo dwarf cichlid is found in the Amazon River basin, in tributaries of the Ucayali, Amazon and Solimões rivers from the Pachitea River to Tabatinga in Peru and Colombia where it lives in small shallow streams or lagoon-like waters in the rain forest.
Santa Rosa de Yavari is an Amazonian town in the Mariscal Ramón Castilla Province in the Loreto Region of Peru, located in an island in the Amazon River in front of the cities of Leticia (Colombia) and Tabatinga (Brazil).