Substrates are generally composed of gravel, rocks, boulders or bedrock carpeted with a rich biofilm formed by algae and other micro-organisms.

At a habitat in the Mendawai river basin in central Kalimantan, H. borneensis was collected from a foothill stream running swiftly over a rock and gravel substrate with clear water of pH 6.4.

Known only from headwaters of the Sungai (river) Amandit, a tributary of the larger Barito basin in the Meratus mountain range, Kalimantan Selatan (South Kalimantan) province, Indonesian Borneo.

There currently exist 36 officially-described members of the genus, all of which are endemic to the island with over half restricted to a single river basin or sub-basin.