[16] In the Mid-Atlantic Region it is found in Lake Champlain and is widespread across New York, south to the Potomac River in Virginia.

[citation needed] The faucet snail has a shiny pale brown shell, oval in shape, with a relatively large and rounded spire consisting of 5–6 somewhat flattened whorls, no umbilicus, and a very thick lip.

[22] Adult Bithynia tentaculata possess a white, calcareous, tear-drop to oval-shaped operculum with distinct concentric rings.

[13] The animal itself has pointed, long tentacles and a simple foot with the right cervical lobe acting as a channel for water.

When filter feeding, algae is sucked in, condensed, and then passed out between the right tentacle and exhalant siphon in pellet-like packages which are then eaten.

[13] The ability to filter feed may play a role in allowing populations of the faucet snail to survive at high densities in relatively eutrophic, anthropogenically influenced water bodies.

[27] Bithynia tentaculata is dioecious (it has two separate sexes) and lays its eggs on rocks, wood and shells in organized aggregates arranged in double rows, in clumps of 1 to 77.

Egg-laying occurs from May to July when water temperature is 20 °C (68 °F) or higher, and sometimes a second time in October and November by females born early in the year.

[29][30] In its native Eurasian habitat, the faucet snail is host to many different species of digeneans, cercariae, metacercariae, cysticercoids, and other parasites.

[42] Bithynia tentaculata is capable of detecting the presence of molluscivorous leeches through chemoreception and of closing its operculum to avoid predation.