 McKay suggests that it may be far more widespread, but commonly misidentified as "S. argentifasciata", or in the case of small subsistence fisheries, has not been reported at all.The species inhabits inshore coastal waters, and is known from depths between 20 and 50 m. Bay whiting, like many other sillaginids are known to inhabit estuaries, but little research has been done on their habitat preference.The diet of bay whiting has been the focus of a study investigating trophic relations between this species, "Sillago sihama", and other similarly distributed fish of the South China Sea.