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Melanoides tuberculatus is an Afro-Asiatic thiarid, common in freshwater environments, now present in a wide portion of the tropical and subtropical regions of the New World. The present study had as its objective to register the occurrence of M. tuberculatus in the area of mangrove of the estuary of the Ceará River, verifying its density and the salinity which the specimens were submitted to verify its euryhalinity. Specimens of M. tuberculatus were collected in mangrove areas of the estuary of the Ceará River, located on the boundary of Caucaia and Fortaleza. Some specimens collected by hand in February 2006 were kept in an aquarium for a month. The abundance of M. tuberculatus in the studied areas varied from 0.76–10.22 individual/cm2. The salinity of the areas varied from 0–30 in the studied months. The presence of M. tuberculatus in these mangrove areas, whose salinity reached a peak of 30, and their survival in the laboratory, under a salinity of up to 35, prove the adaptation of this limnetic gastropod to euryhalinity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]