This species is a bottom dweller and can be found in spring-fed streams with sandy bottoms. In Louisiana, it is closely associated with leaf-litter deposits in streams, and animals may burrow into the bottom during the warm season (Bart and Holzenthal 1985). Undercut banks and overhanging trees associated with deep pools are "key habitat features associated with [the Mobile and Pearl] lineage[s]" (Gunter and Brode 1964 in Guyer et al. 2020). The Western lineage is associated with streams with "sandy- or gravel-bottom regions, typically with logjams" (Guyer et al. 2020). Egg clutches are deposited in deep water under rocks, logs or other sunken objects; females guard the nests (Guyer et al. 2020). This species is paedomorphic, which may limit dispersal and gene flow between subpopulations (Niemiller et al. 2022).

This species occurs in the Lower Coastal Plain from Texas eastward to the Mobile Bay drainage in Alabama, USA (Bart et al. 1997). Guyer et al. (2020) re-delimited this species, restricting it to the drainages belonging to the following genetic lineages: Mobile lineage (Mobile, Alabama to Biloxi, Mississippi), Pearl lineage (Wolf, Mississippi to Pearl, Louisiana), Pontchartrain lineage (Bayou Bonfouca to Blind River, Louisiana), and the Western lineage (Calcasieu, Louisiana to West Fork of the San Jacinto River, Texas). It is found in the same drainage as Necturus alabamensis but the Mobile lineage of this species occupies the "slower-moving waters of the Coastal Plain and N. alabamensis occupies the swifter waters of the terminus of the Sand Mountain formation"; in addition, they are also sympatric in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, which is the only case "of sympatry involving Gulf Coast waterdogs" (Guyer et al. 2020). Records of the species from the Apachicola and Escambia lineages have been reassigned to the species N. moleri and N. mounti, respectively (Guyer et al. 2020). As a result the species no longer occurs in Georgia or Florida. Records to the west of the Red River drainage belong to this species (T. Pierson and D. Beamer pers. comm. June 2020), while those to the east likely belong to another species but are retained in this species' concept for the purposes of this assessment.

Conservation Actions In-Place
The range of this species overlaps with several protected areas. 

In an effort to prevent the introduction of Bsal into the US, an Interim Rule of the Lacey Act has been enacted that bans the importation of 201 species of salamanders (USFWS 2016). Additionally, a temporary voluntary trade moratorium of imports of Asian salamander species that are known to carry the disease until such time as effective testing and treatment regimens can be developed and distributed has been recommended to all exporters, shippers, sellers and buyers by the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC). A North America Bsal Task Force has also been created, with working groups designed to address a variety of disease prevention and mitigation goals (North America Bsal Task Force 2021).

Research Needed
More information is needed on its taxonomic status, population status, life history and threats.