Adults live in the intestine of freshwater fish. They release unembryonated eggs which must develop before being eaten by an amphipod intermediate host. Within the amphipod the oncosphere hatches, burrows into the body cavity and develops into a procercoid.
When the amphipod is eaten by a definitive host, the procercoid develops into a plerocercoid in the intestine, and then continues development into an adult. This may indicate that these parasites used to use a second intermediate host, for development of the plerocercoid, but that this host has now been dispensed with.