As a ciliate, C. uncinata has cilia covering its body and a dual nuclear structure, the micronucleus and macronucleus.

Childonella uncinata is the causative agent of Chilodonelloza, a disease that affects the gills and skin of fresh water fish, and may act as a facultative of mosquito larva.

It lives in fresh water ponds, lakes, creeks, and bayous where it feeds on bacteria and other microbes.

[6] Chilodonella uncinata has a broad thigmotactic zone that is two-thirds the length of the body width and has a pronounced anterior beak that is directed to the left.

Internally eliminated sequences (IES) are noncoding regions of the germ-line genome found in Ciliates.

Unlike Tetrahymena or Paramecium, it has been observed that C. uncinata has a larger number of IES sequences within a single protein-coding gene than in other ciliates .

Chilodonella uncinata has sexual conjugation for recombination, and replication of the cell occurs by asexual division [4] Sex and reproduction are separate in ciliates.

Amitosis is a stochastic process where unlike in mitosis, there is no spindle formation to segregate chromosomes during nuclear division.

[11] Specifically, C. uncinata along with other closely related Ciliates has been used to determine the evolution of duplication of the alpha-tubulin gene.