[2][3] It is native to freshwater environments of Eastern Asia, including Russia, Thailand, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

Human industrial activity, such as transport of larvae via ballast water in container ships, has been noted in the literature as a chief invasion vector.

[6] According to the United States Geological Survey, C. fluminea is likely to continue to expand its North American range until it reaches the maximum extent of its low temperature tolerance.

[17] Corbicula has shown to interfere with water-based infrastructure created by humans,[18][11][10] such as water treatment and hydroelectric dams,[12][11] by clogging them up.

In addition, when viewed from the ventral side (looking at the opening between the shells), C. fluminalis is rounder, almost heart-shaped, while C. fluminea has a slightly flatter shape like a teardrop with a notched broad end.

This clam originally occurs in freshwater environments of Eastern Asia, including Russia, Thailand, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

[4] Many coastal rivers with a heavy industrial shipping presence in the invaded range of C. fluminea sustain Asian clam populations.

[55] Studies on which abiotic habitat characteristics are most strongly associated with Asian clam population abundance have produced varying results.

in areas with coarser dominant sediment fractions, while negatively correlated with increasing levels of organic matter.

[56] Others studies have shown abiotic habitat characteristics such as water redox potential, inorganic nutrient content, hardness, and organic matter content in tandem with the amount of very coarse sand combine to explain 59.3% of Corbicula population habitat association via statistical tests.

[58] The clam has also been reported as causing a decline of dissolved oxygen in the water of the same river system with wide-ranging second-order effects.

[58] The primary economic and social impact of the invasion of C. fluminea has been billions of dollars in costs associated with clogged plumbing and, heat exchangers, or other human-created infrastructure.

[62][63] They have been blamed for algal blooms and concerns exist they will outcompete and displace native species such as the montane pea clam (Pisidium spp.)

[65][66] On October 16, 2020, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks recommended that Lake Elmo — in Billings — be drained to dry out and freeze to death the C. fluminea there.