The name Viviparus malleatus is especially common in much of the older literature from the United States. Chinese mystery snail, Chinese vivipara, tanisha, rice snail, Chinese apple snail, Asian apple snail. Chinese mysterysnails have a shell which is smooth, globose in outline, and thin in structure, but strong. Color is uniform, light to dark olive-green, without any color bands. The small, round umbilicus is covered in part by the reflected, slightly thickened parietal lip.
Black pigmentation rims the entire lip and somewhat within the aperture.
The columnella is narrow and arched. Whorls are strongly convex, with a very slight shoulder, and the suture is deeply indented. Shell sculpture consists of fine growth lines, spiral lines and fine to moderate malleations over the entire surface. In some individuals, older lip reflections will appear as fairly strong axial ridges. The majority of molluscs are minute, that is less than 5mm maximum size.