Nutrition:

            Viviparus georgianus acquires food by using their radula or ciliated incurrent siphon. The radula is an organ used for scratching and tearing different food substrates; it has chitinous teeth that aid in the scraping of bacteria, detritus, and algae. The radula also draws matter into the mouth, and then grinds food by pressing it against the oral cavity. Filter-feeding is a way to capture suspended food particles, and juvenile snails rely primarily on this. The Banded Mystery Snail has a “food groove” that is covered with edge of gills and cilia. The cilia draw water and suspended matter into the groove while mucus captures the food. The gill edges will occasionally capture food also, and it will fall into the furrow. The particles eventually accumulate in the mucus, and the snail orally consumes them. (Thorp and Covich, 1820; Kohl)   
           
            The Banded Mystery Snail has a broad diet consisting of everything from live plants to decaying matter. They graze upon green algae, filter out floating diatoms and scavenge on decomposing plants. Viviparus georgianus is known to feed on organic and inorganic detritus at the bottom of slow water bodies which makes it a useful indicator of pollution. It is used mainly to indicate the presence of excessive fertilizer and oil. (Jokinen et. al 1982; Kipp and Benson, 2009) Interestingly, the breakdown of food prior to consumption could increase the protein concentration and increase nutrient content (Browne, 1978).  
 
            Once consumed, food is passed through the espophagous to the stomach where digestion occurs. The stomach is located in the visceral mass, and it is conveniently close to the digestive glands which produce enzymes for food breakdown. After digestion occurs and nutrients are absorbed into the blood, the body fluid flows through the body cavity, the coelom, to strain out toxic wastes such as ammonia. Next, the coelom is relieved of waste and water by two nephridia that cleanse the coelomic fluid by moving waste out towards the mantle cavity where secretion occurs.  (Hickman et. al, 2009; Thorp and Covich 1820)
 
            Viviparus georgianus has an open circulatory system for blood flow and oxygen transportation. It is called an open circulatory system because the blood will leave the snail’s vessels and enter into a large cavity. In a closed circulatory system, blood will always remain in vessels throughout the body. Oxygen diffuses into the blood via a gill in the mantle cavity. Water containing oxygen passes over plates in the gills, and blood passes over the plates in the opposite direction. As a result, oxygen diffuses from the water to the blood where it is pumped throughout the body via the heart. (Hickman et. al, 2009; Thorp and Covich, 1820)