These organisms are considered to be stenohaline (salt intolerant).

At the present day cyclostome bryozoans are exclusively marine and stenohaline, with most species living subtidally on the continental shelf.

Many fresh water fish, such as goldfish (Carassius auratus), tend to be stenohaline and die in environments of high salinity such as the ocean.

It is stenohaline, found only in mainland freshwater environments, and is endemic to neotropical environments in South America.

Euryhaline organisms are salt tolerant and can survive in marine ecosystems, while stenohaline or salt intolerant species can only live in freshwater environments.

Most fish are stenohaline, which means they are restricted to either salt or fresh water and cannot survive in water with a different salt concentration than they are adapted to.

Most freshwater organisms are stenohaline, and will die in seawater, and similarly most marine organisms are stenohaline, and cannot live in fresh water.

Libinia emarginata, the portly spider crab, common spider crab or nine-spined spider crab, is a species of stenohaline crab that lives on the Atlantic coast of North America.