[8] The freshwater snail Physella acuta is common in all of North America and Europe including the United Kingdom.

[17] The distribution includes the United States east of the Rocky Mountains[8] This species lives in freshwater rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and swamps.

[17] Physella acuta is frequently found in anthropogenic reservoirs, occurring in warm water discharges from power stations and in some rivers, but very rarely and not numerously in clay pit ponds.

[7] This species successfully co-exists with other alien gastropods: for example with Potamopyrgus antipodarum in many streams, lakes and ponds in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom; and with Lithoglyphus naticoides in the Danube River.

However, in experimentally constrained lines (where mates were often unavailable), after about 20 generations of self-fertilization, most of the inbreeding depression was purged.

[26] P. acuta is one of a variety of snails often called "pest snails" in freshwater fishkeeping, due to their tendency to be inadvertently introduced into tanks via hitching a ride on ornamental plants, combined with how readily and quickly they reproduce due in part to their ability to self-fertilize.

Others will however intentionally keep bladder snails, as their diet and ease of care can prove to make them a useful part of a tank's clean-up crew.