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The slimy sculpin is the most widely distributed sculpin in B.C. Distributional and morphological evidence suggest that the province was postglacially colonized from three sources — the Columbia River, the northern Great Plains, and Beringia. Except in the southern part of the province, the populations are generally healthy. With one exception (a geographically isolated population in central Idaho), the southern populations of this species closely coincide with the maximum extent of glaciation. This raises the possibility that they did not survive glaciation in the Columbia system but postglacially entered Columbia drainages from the north. The slimy sculpin is a coldwater species and most populations in southern B.C. are found in glacial streams or cool headwaters. Nonetheless, there are populations above barriers (where they are the only sculpin) that occupy relatively warm streams (e.g., the Kettle River). Indeed, it is common to find slimy sculpins, by themselves, above barriers in the B.C. portion of the Columbia system. They tolerate warmer conditions if they are the only sculpin but appear to be excluded where warm-water sculpins (e.g., Columbia, torrent, and Rocky Mountain sculpins) occur. The Flathead River would be an excellent site to look at water temperature and interactions between the slimy and Rocky Mountain sculpins. In this system the pattern of slimy sculpins in cool water and eastslope sculpins downstream is repeated in several tributary streams.

North America: throughout most of mainland Canada and Alaska; Atlantic Slope drainages south to Potomac River in Virginia, USA; St. Lawrence-Great Lakes basin; upper Mississippi River basin in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, USA; upper Columbia River drainage in Canada and USA. Also in Siberia, Russia.