Botos swim into flooded forests in the high-water season and often search for prey among the roots and trunks of partially submerged trees. Mark/recapture studies have shown that some individuals are resident to specific areas year-round (Martin and da Silva 2004a), whereas others move several tens to hundreds of kilometers within the rivers, but there does not appear to be any actual seasonal migration (Martin and da Silva 2004a).

Botos are generally concentrated below channel confluences (Magnusson et al. 1980; Mead and Koehnken 1991; Leatherwood 1996; Vidal et al. 1997; Leatherwood et al. 2000), with mixing of white and black waters (Martin et al. 2004). Their affinity for confluences diminishes during the high water season, probably because the animals move into appended lakes and flooded forests (Leatherwood 1996; Leatherwood et al. 2000; Martin and da Silva 2004b). They occur most often within 150 m of the edges of rivers, with lower densities in the centers of large rivers (Martin et al. 2004).

Botos feed on a large variety of fishes (over 43 species), generally near the bottom (see Best and da Silva 1993; da Silva 2002).