As is the case in species in the genus Alviniconcha, the tissues of Ifremeria nautilei contain symbiotic bacteria which live on the sulfur from the vents, and the snails derive their nutrition from this symbiosis.

This species is particularly notable because the female snails have a brood pouch on the foot, and because they release a gastropod larval form which had never been observed and described before until 2008.

This species hosts symbiotic chemoautotrophic bacteria that oxidize sulfur from hydrothermal vents.

Firstly females of the species possess a brood pouch (a metapodial pedal gland) in the foot.

[2][3] This species occurs at depths between 1,700 m and 2,900 m, in hydrothermal vents and hydrocarbon cold seeps in the Valufa Ridge, which is southeast of Fiji, in the South Pacific Ocean.