Sinotaia quadrata is a species of a freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Viviparidae.

It is widely distributed and common species in China and in northern Vietnam inhabiting various shallow freshwater habitats, where it can reach high densities.

[10] It inhabits rice paddies, lakes, pools, slow flowing rivers, streams, ditches, ponds, and canals called khlongs in Vietnam.

[2][11] It has a benthic lifestyle and lives mainly in shallow littoral areas,[12] usually in soft mud rich in organic matter.

[13] This species is not actively migrating, rather its dispersal appears to be caused passively by floods, animals (zoochory), and accidentally by humans.

[16] Its pronounced effect on water chemistry and community composition makes S. quadrata a keystone species in its habitat.

[11] The snail including the shell has a weight of about 2.8 g.[16] Sinotaia quadrata feeds on epiphytic algae.

[10] Sinotaia quadrata histrica snails predate also on eggs of bluegill Lepomis macrochirus.

[24] Its consumption of cyanobacteria during algal blooms may result in bioaccumulation of toxic microcystins (microcystin-LR, microcystin-RR) from Microcystis in the gonads, the hepatopancreas and the digestive tract.

[24] Adult snails feeding ad libitum under ideal laboratory conditions eat 16.0 mg of fish food daily.

[11] The shell length of juvenile snails starts at about 3 mm and grows rapidly by about 190 μm daily.

Juveniles become adults at the age of nine weeks, when they reach a shell height of 12.15–16.09 mm; from then on, they grow more slowly at about 30 μm daily.

[21] S. quadrata has been the subject of various aquatic toxicology studies into the effects of copper,[11][25] cadmium,[26] lead,[27] ethylbenzene,[28] 2,2',4,4'- tetrabromodiphenyl ether,[26][29] tributyltin,[30] microcystin,[31] multi-walled carbon nanotubes,[32] and 17β-estradiol.

[11] Sinotaia quadrata snails from West Lake in Hanoi, Vietnam were found to be contaminated with copper, lead and zinc.

[11] Sinotaia quadrata is common animal food used in aquaculture to feed fish black carp[43] in China.

In Isan, Thailand they are collected by hand or with a handnet from canals, swamps, ponds and flooded rice paddy fields during the rainy season.