Adult rocksnails move very little, and females probably glue their eggs to rocks in the same habitat.

Longevity in the painted rocksnail is unknown. However, a similar species found in the Tennessee River has a short life span of less than two years.

The painted rocksnail is a small to medium pleurocerid snail with a subglobose to oval shaped shell, with an aperture or shell opening that is broadly ovate and rounded anteriorly.

Measurements:
Length: About 0.8 in (19 mm)

Coloration varies from yellowish to olive-brown, and usually four dark bands are present on the shell. However, some shells may not have bands or some bands may be broken into squares or oblongs.

This species is found attached to cobble, gravel or other hard substrates in the strong currents of shoals and riffles, which are shallow areas in a streambed that cause ripples in the water.

Pleurocerid snails are considered generalist scrapers and generally feed by ingesting periphyton, or attached algae, and biofilm detritus, which is dead particulate organic material, scraped off the substrate by the snail’s radula. A radula is a horny band with minute teeth that snails use to pull food into the mouth, as documented by J.B.T. Morales and A.K. Ward in 2000.