It is considered to be an ecosystem engineer because it alters the nature of the water and the bottom habitats of lakes and rivers and modifies the associated invertebrate communities.

Because mussels attach to hard substrata, including the components of industrial, water-treatment and power plants, they have become a major biofouling problem in the areas invaded.

Water enters the mussel's mantle cavity through the inhalant aperture, and after describing a series of movements during which suspended particles are filtered out and either ingested, digested in the gut, and the undigested remains egested as feces, or discarded as pseudofeces, is expelled through the exhalant siphon.

Internally, a series of muscles attached to the valves are responsible for its closure, retraction of the byssus, and movements of the foot[4][5] Limnoperna fortunei is dioecious, with approximately equal numbers of males and females and very small proportions of hermaphrodites.

[7] Ova and sperm are liberated into the water, most probably simultaneously within the same area, where fertilization occurs producing a series of planktonic developing forms[3] including a trochophore and a veliger[3] around 150 micrometres (0 in) in size.

In South America, at water temperatures between ~10 and 30 °C (50 and 86 °F), larvae are produced continuously for 6–10 months of the year between spring and autumn, often with conspicuous peaks around November and April.

Growth rates and final size depend largely on water temperature and the time of the year when the individuals are born, although calcium concentrations, pollution, food availability and intraspecific competition may play important roles as well.

Although it cannot live on fine loose sediments, muddy areas stabilized by roots or fibrous debris are also occasionally colonized.

Mussel beds cover extensive areas at densities often in excess of 200,000 per square metre (810,000,000/acre) (including early juveniles below 1 millimetre (3⁄64 in) in size), but their thickness rarely exceeds 7–10 centimetres (3–4 in), with most adults being at least partially attached to the substrate.

Settlement of new recruits is higher in established mussel beds than elsewhere, and juveniles often attach to larger shells, but eventually move deeper towards the substrate.

Adult individuals process around 1 liter of water every 10 hours,[32] retaining organic particles, including phytoplankton and zooplankton, and egesting or rejecting unwanted materials in mucous strands that settle on the bottom.

[35] Introduction of this mussel in South America has been tentatively associated with large increases in the landings of the commercially most important detritivorous fish species of the Río de la Plata basin, Prochilodus lineatus.

The facilities affected include power plants (nuclear, hydroelectric, thermal), water and wastewater processing plants, refineries, steel mills, fish culture installations, water transfer canals and aqueducts, watercraft, agricultural irrigation systems, balancing reservoirs and balancing tanks.

The problems involved include clogging by living mussels or by dead, dislodged shells, pressure loss, overheating, corrosion, abrasion and wear, jamming of moving components, sealing failures, deterioration of metal, concrete and other materials, and sediment accumulation.