The Freshwater Snail (Bithynia tentaculata) is a very small aquatic snail, which is also called the Faucet Snail. It is a gastropod.

The Freshwater Snail has a shiny, brown shell that looks like a cone on a simple clear-coloured foot. It has a thick lip. It has long tentacles. Like fish, it has gills to breath (not lungs).

Freshwater Snail

It grows to about 1.5 centimetres (half an inch) tall.

The Freshwater Snail lives in slow-running freshwater, such as rivers, ponds, and lakes. It is found in gravel, sand, mud, on rocks, or among aquatic plants.

It eats algae and sometimes black fly larvae.

The Freshwater Snail has two separate sexes (male and female). This is called dioecious. It lays eggs on rocks, wood, and shells in double rows, in clumps up to 77-155 eggs. The eggs take about three weeks to three months to hatch.

The lifespan of the Freshwater Snail is about 17–39 months.

Freshwater Snail

Freshwater Snail

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM