Red-rimmed melania

• Cuba[12]
• United States since the 1930s[6] (see below)
• Latin America in the late 1960s[13]
• Brazil - since 1967[13] (Ilha Grande in Rio de Janeiro in southeastern Brazil since 2004)[13]
• Netherlands - before 1990[14]
• New Zealand[15]
• Venezuela[16][17][18][19][20]

• Dominica[21]
• Trinidad
• and others

This species can also be found in artificially-heated indoor habitats, such as aquaria in greenhouses, and similar biotopes:

• Czech Republic
• Germany[22]
• Great Britain
• Slovakia - thermal brook in the wild.
• and others

This species has become established outside of its natural range in large part through the activities of aquarists.[5][6] These snails were imported to the United States by the aquarium trade as early as the 1930s.[6] Established populations exist from Florida to Texas, and the species may still be expanding its range in the West and Northeast.[6]

Some of these exotic populations have become very large, with densities of 10,000 per square metre being reported from the St. Johns River in Florida.[23] In some cases red-rimmed melanias are believed to have a negative impact on native snail populations.[5]

The nonindigenous distribution includes the United States: Arizona; San Francisco Bay, California;[6] Colorado; Florida; Hawai'i; Louisiana;[6] Montana; North Carolina; Nevada; Oregon; Utah;[6] Texas,[6] and Fall River County in South Dakota,[24] (Unconfirmed in Virginia, and Wyoming.)[6]

Although normally a freshwater snail, this species is very tolerant of brackish water, and has been recorded in waters with a salinity of 32.5 ppt (1,024 specific gravity salinity).

It is however a warm-climate species. It appears to prefer a temperature range of 18 to 25 °C[5] or of 18 to 32 °C.[6] Research has been conducted to determine the snail's lethal high water temperature, which is about 50 °C (120 degrees Fahrenheit).[6] This information is helpful in the disinfection of fishing gear and research equipment, which otherwise may inadvertently spread the snails to uninfested waters.[6][25]

This species is resistant to low oxygen levels.[26] The pollution tolerance value is 3 (on scale 0–10; 0 is the best water quality, 10 is the worst water quality).[27]

This snail feeds primarily on algae (microalgae).

Red-rimmed melania females are both parthenogenic and ovoviparous.[6][28] Females can be recognized by their greenish coloured gonads while males have reddish gonads. Under good conditions, females will produce fertilised eggs that are transferred to a brood pouch where they remain until they hatch (parthenogenesis and viviparity).[23] Melanoides tuberculata has 1–64 embryos in its brood pouch.[28] Snails will begin reproducing at a size as small as 5 mm[28] or 10 mm in length and broods may contain over seventy offspring (iteroparity).[5] The size of the shell of the parent at peak release of juveniles is 20.0 mm.[28] The size of juveniles at birth is 1.2-2.2 mm.[28]

Melanoides tuberculata grows to a similar size as Tarebia granifera, are similar in size at first birth and juvenile output.[28]

It is a r-strategist species.[29]

Melanoides tuberculata is known to carry certain parasites which can be dangerous to humans. Pinto & de Melo (2011)[30] compiled a checklist of 37 species of trematode parasites from this species of snail.[30] Eleven of those trematodes are also parasites of human.[30] These snails serve as first intermediate host for parasites which include:[5][26]

• Clonorchis sinensis - Chinese liver fluke[31]
• Centrocestus formosanus[32][31]
• Paragonimus westermani - Oriental lung fluke[31][1]
• Paragonimus kellicotti[31]
• Angiostrongylus cantonensis[31]
• Loxogenoides bicolor[31]
• Transversotrema laruei[31]
• Sticiodora tridactyl[31]
• Gastrodiscus aegyptiacus[31]
• Philophthalmus gralli[31]
• Philophthalmus distomatosa[31]
• Haplorchis pumilio[31]
• Haplorchis sp.[31]
• Metagonimus[1]
• Diorchitrema formosanum[1]
• unknown species in Schistosomatidae[33]

This species is a host for a trematode parasite which has been found to infect an endangered species of fish in Texas, the fountain darter.[6]