Miss Sneller Layed Eggs

I ordered and received a mystery snail January 7, 2021 He was about the size of a nickle when I first got him. I named this new water pet Mr. Sneller. Well Mr. Sneller kept growing and growing and before long I started seeing my plant leaves disappearing. The light dawned.....my mystery snail is in fact an apple snail. Mr. Sneller is now about the size of a half dollar.

One morning along about March 18th I check in on him and to my surprise I found 2 large clutches of eggs. Oops.....Mr. Sneller is actually Miss. Sneller.

I keep the water level in the tank she is in filled to just a fraction of an inch below the very top. I am sure she thought to herself "Ok now I need to deposit these eggs somewhere but this silly human has made it difficult for me". This human has put some kind of clear barrier between the water line and the light in the hood. Let me see if I can pull that down just a little bit and slide on up in there. Ahhhhhh, success. I feel so much better now. I will just slide right back down in the tank and that silly human will be none the wiser.

Now I don't know if Miss Sneller has ever been with a Mr. Sneller but I collected the eggs just in case and here in another week or so I may have lots of little snellers or they may all be duds.

BTW: Miss Sneller made the journey again last night and left me another clutch of eggs. I will leave this one where it is and see what happens. It is fairly humid under there. The first 2 clutches are in a plastic container with a wet paper towel under them to keep the humidity up in the hatchery.

 

O my you really want to hope they don't all hatch they'll be raiding the fridge lol

 

Looks like Miss Sneller had been with a Mr. Sneller at one point in her life. I have baby snails this morning. She left me a total of 4 good sized clutches. I disposed of 3 of them. When I saw babies this morning I actually disposed of the ones still remaining in the clutch. Even though I did that I probably still have about 100.

Although I read all I could find on taking care of these tiny creatures I went back to reading more. Only time will tell if I've learned enough to successfully raise these little guys.

One thing I couldn't find out is the proper temp to keep them at. Do they need a heater or will room temp be alright. It still gets pretty cool here at night. Probably gets down to the mid 60's and they are going to be in a small hatchery for a while.

Right now they are in the container they hatched in. I have removed the paper towel and added about an inch of water. I added a super tiny bit of BacterAE and a mini algae wafer. I see most of them are now up at the water line. Is that telling me they aren't happy with their water conditions?

Calling our resident snail Guru. Can you help me out erinw347 This is a whole new experience for me.

I would love to share a photo but seriously all you would see are tiny black dots.

 

I had a mystery snail since August of last year who didn't lay a clutch until a month or two ago.

Size isn't necessarily an indicator of whether your snail is a mystery snail or not (Unless it is quite literally apple sized) I had a true mystery snail get to the size of a small orange https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/media/dusky.251911/ Dusky - Dusky -
(He got a little bigger than this too)
However I did see you mention in a different thread that Miss Sneller ate your crypts; in which case she is probably an apple snail.

Despite my outrageous number of snails, I'm only raising my first clutch right now, but I will answer as much as I can.

1. Snails are okay in high 60s so you don't necessarily NEED a heater, however it is best to keep it there or above
2. Mystery and apple snails breathe air from the surface, so they are probably just taking their first breath! My baby mystery snails actually keep leaving the water and getting into the main tank instead of staying in their breeders box... guess I'm raising some little rebels.
3. Wasn't really asked, but baby snails eat the same things as adults; I've been feeding mine algae wafers and tiny pieces of zucchini leftover from pleco feedings.

I'll be following along to help the best I can, and I will attach more pictures when I'm not on desktop. I'd love to see Miss Sneller; I should be able to give a better identification

 

Thank you bunches for helping me out. I have to run into town for a little while so will get back to you soon.

 

erinw347 is that snail of yours a one off or do all true mystery get that big
He's huge

 

erinw347 is that snail of yours a one off or do all true mystery get that big
He's huge

It depends.

Mystery snails reference 2 different species; Pomacea bridgesii and Pomacea diffusa

To my knowledge, most mystery snails sold are P. diffusa. Those are the ones that don't tend to grow as large. Sometimes P. bridgesii is sold, and although they are mostly the same, they tend to get bigger. Also, Dusky (the snail shown above) was sold as a black mystery snail; brown shell, black foot. However, his shell doesn't resemble most black mystery's.

So I believe that Dusky was P. bridgesii, which is why he got so big. I have also bought snails from the same Petsmart who seemed to get big as well, however none of them ever touched my plants, which led me to believe they are not apple snails.

Edit: FYI. The species were once considered subspecies of each other; they are apparently very similar and were hard to differentiate for a long time.

Pomacea diffusa - Wikipedia

 

Back from town, everything is put away so time to rest for a few minutes before I put us together a bite to eat.

I am beginning to think I was blaming Miss Sneller for something she wasn't doing. I removed her from the tank and crypt leaves kept disappearing. I am now thinking it was actually the rabbit snails eating them. I removed them from the tank. Put her back in there and put the rabbits back in their original tank. It is going to be easier to miss a clutch of eggs in the big tank but I will keep a very close eye on it. I found and removed another one this morning. That makes 5 clutches since she started.

I am now thinking she may not be an apple snail after all and is just gonna be a big girl. No where near as big as Dusky is yet but if she keeps growing as fast as she is she just might get that big in time.

The baby snails have now started wandering around in the hatchery instead of just hanging out along the water line. Thanks for letting me know that was normal for these tiny creatures. Thanks also for the info on what to feed them. I will figure out a way to keep these little guys warm at night. Don't want them freezing their little footsies off.

Finally got a quick photo of Miss Sneller

 

Back from town, everything is put away so time to rest for a few minutes before I put us together a bite to eat.

I am beginning to think I was blaming Miss Sneller for something she wasn't doing. I removed her from the tank and crypt leaves kept disappearing. I am now thinking it was actually the rabbit snails eating them. I removed them from the tank. Put her back in there and put the rabbits back in their original tank. It is going to be easier to miss a clutch of eggs in the big tank but I will keep a very close eye on it. I found and removed another one this morning. That makes 5 clutches since she started.

I am now thinking she may not be an apple snail after all and is just gonna be a big girl. No where near as big as Dusky is yet but if she keeps growing as fast as she is she just might get that big in time.

The baby snails have now started wandering around in the hatchery instead of just hanging out along the water line. Thanks for letting me know that was normal for these tiny creatures. Thanks also for the info on what to feed them. I will figure out a way to keep these little guys warm at night. Don't want them freezing their little footsies off.

It could definitely be the rabbits. I had a yellow rabbit snail punch holes in my small amazon sword while he was hanging out in the shrimp tank. I gave him a scolding and put him with the hustling and bustling corys; he didnt do it again

As I mentioned earlier, mine are in a breeders net. I prefer this because it doesn’t require another tank, and they get plenty of water flowing in and out. Although plenty of them have escaped to hang out with their mom

 

It could definitely be the rabbits. I had a yellow rabbit snail punch holes in my small amazon sword while he was hanging out in the shrimp tank. I gave him a scolding and put him with the hustling and bustling corys; he didnt do it again

As I mentioned earlier, mine are in a breeders net. I prefer this because it doesn’t require another tank, and they get plenty of water flowing in and out. Although plenty of them have escaped to hang out with their mom

I could try the breeders net but for now I really don't want any of them escaping into this tank. As tiny as they are it would be months before I could find them again. I am not sure I really want a big population of them in this tank. I think I can rig something up to hang in the tank and also prevent them from escaping. I just have to put on my thinking cap and figure it out.

Did y'all see the photo I posted of my big girl? I posted it too soon and it got merged with my previous post.

 

I take it that one is a genuine mystery snail mattgirl

 

I take it that one is a genuine mystery snail mattgirl

I totally agree. She is a mystery to me anyway

For size comparison. The albino cory that photo bombed the snail photo is about 2 inches long.

 

I could try the breeders net but for now I really don't want any of them escaping into this tank. As tiny as they are it would be months before I could find them again. I am not sure I really want a big population of them in this tank. I think I can rig something up to hang in the tank and also prevent them from escaping. I just have to put on my thinking cap and figure it out.

Did y'all see the photo I posted of my big girl? I posted it too soon and it got merged with my previous post.

She looks so much like dusky, how wonderful.

If you’re up to getting a shot of her with the opening of her shell facing the camera, I should be able to give you a specific ID (if you want it). However, I think she’s probably just a big boned mystery snail

Edit: For confirmation, this is the kind of picture I’m referring to Species Account : Pomacea paludosa : Freshwater Gastropods of North America

 

She looks so much like dusky, how wonderful.

If you’re up to getting a shot of her with the opening of her shell facing the camera, I should be able to give you a specific ID (if you want it). However, I think she’s probably just a big boned mystery snail

Edit: For confirmation, this is the kind of picture I’m referring to Species Account : Pomacea paludosa : Freshwater Gastropods of North America

I guess her specific species really isn't all that important but if I can catch her asleep I can try to get that kind of photo. What ever she is I hope she will be with me for a long long time

 

I could try the breeders net but for now I really don't want any of them escaping into this tank. As tiny as they are it would be months before I could find them again. I am not sure I really want a big population of them in this tank. I think I can rig something up to hang in the tank and also prevent them from escaping. I just have to put on my thinking cap and figure it out.

Did y'all see the photo I posted of my big girl? I posted it too soon and it got merged with my previous post.

I forgot to respond to this first part. The reason I was concerned about the breeding net is because I didn’t want them to get eaten. I have 8 dime sized angels in there and I know they would just be too curious. Not to mention the energetic corys would probably suck them up on accident.

I understand why you don’t want snails in your main tank though. Although they’re lots of fun, they can make their stay whether you like it or not

 

I forgot to respond to this first part. The reason I was concerned about the breeding net is because I didn’t want them to get eaten. I have 8 dime sized angels in there and I know they would just be too curious. Not to mention the energetic corys would probably suck them up on accident.

That would probably happen in my big tank too. I have way more corys than I really should in this tank and I feel sure none of these tiny snails would survive if I just let them loose in there.

I understand why you don’t want snails in your main tank though. Although they’re lots of fun, they can make their stay whether you like it or not

When I very first got snails in my main tank I just wanted them gone. My infestation was ramshorn snails. I didn't realize just how bad it was until I noticed the water from a gravel vac was black and I mean really black. I went on a quest to get rid of them. At the time I didn't want to just lower the numbers, I wanted them GONE.

I followed all advice for getting them out of there. I set traps and pulled out dozens daily. I picked out every one I saw. I even went as far as removing the snail infested gravel and replaced it with sand. Caused a mini-cycle with that one. I finally got a dozen assassin snails. Between me pulling them out and the assassins doing their job I had finally eradicated the problem.

Once they were gone I got to wondering what I was going to feed the assassins. I knew they would eat other food but also though they would appreciate some of their favorite food. After all they were working for me so I should feed them what they like.

I found a couple of missed ramshorns in one of my filters and moved them to their own home. They and their offspring live in a 2.5 gallon jar. I was just pulling some out from time to time and would drop them back into the tank I worked so hard to remove them from.

By this time I had gained a lot more respect for the job snails do for us and our tanks when kept in controllable numbers. I was no longer concerned about them over running my tank. I knew the assassins would take care of them for me but before they found them all the ramshorns would have had time to do some tank cleaning.

Fast forward to today. I have finally managed to remove all assassins from their original home (my 55 gallon tank) so it is now a safe place for my rabbits and mysteries. I went from someone who thought snails were nothing but a pest needing to be eradicated to someone that loves watching the antics of these fascinating creatures.

 

That would probably happen in my big tank too. I have way more corys than I really should in this tank and I feel sure none of these tiny snails would survive if I just let them loose in there.

When I very first got snails in my main tank I just wanted them gone. My infestation was ramshorn snails. I didn't realize just how bad it was until I noticed the water from a gravel vac was black and I mean really black. I went on a quest to get rid of them. At the time I didn't want to just lower the numbers, I wanted them GONE.

I followed all advice for getting them out of there. I set traps and pulled out dozens daily. I picked out every one I saw. I even went as far as removing the snail infested gravel and replaced it with sand. Caused a mini-cycle with that one. I finally got a dozen assassin snails. Between me pulling them out and the assassins doing their job I had finally eradicated the problem.

Once they were gone I got to wondering what I was going to feed the assassins. I knew they would eat other food but also though they would appreciate some of their favorite food. After all they were working for me so I should feed them what they like.

I found a couple of missed ramshorns in one of my filters and moved them to their own home. They and their offspring live in a 2.5 gallon jar. I was just pulling some out from time to time and would drop them back into the tank I worked so hard to remove them from.

By this time I had gained a lot more respect for the job snails do for us and our tanks when kept in controllable numbers. I was no longer concerned about them over running my tank. I knew the assassins would take care of them for me but before they found them all the ramshorns would have had time to do some tank cleaning.

Fast forward to today. I have finally managed to remove all assassins from their original home (my 55 gallon tank) so it is now a safe place for my rabbits and mysteries. I went from someone who thought snails were nothing but a pest needing to be eradicated to someone that loves watching the antics of these fascinating creatures.

I completely understand.

I had a bladder snail invasion awhile ago in my shrimp tank. They completely blew up since there was no predators, despite limited feedings. I got so sick of them I nuked the tank and started fresh. They were finally gone, but I took down my shrimp tank for different reasons a while later.

I recently got some more shrimp on my birthday to make a nano tank with clown killies. I've seen a few little ones pop up, but I tank them out as soon as I see them and throw them in my angel tank. They aren't as scary in there, and make a great angelfish snack

All snails, even pest snails, do have a place in the aquarium. However, with all the other snails I have, I'd like to keep it limited to the ones I bought on purpose. Right now I have one mystery snail, 5 nerites, one piano snail and one horned pagoda snail.

 

I transferred the little ones to a floating breeder box earlier today. I counted them as I moved them and right now I have 70 of the little creatures. I acclimated them to the 55 gallon tanks water and it seems so far they are doing just fine. As I was acclimating them I kept a close eye on them and during all that time none went through the very narrow slits in the breeder box so it looks like I will be able to keep them contained.

I put some guppy grass in there with them so they have lots of places to climb around. If all survive I will have my hands full. I am glad I discarded all the other clutches and am also glad I didn't allow this whole clutch to hatch. 70 of them is more than enough.

I will be keeping a very close eye on the tank so no clutches slip by me. Hopefully she will stop gifting me with them before much longer. All of the ones she's left for me have been laid over night so I check the tank very close every morning. It is amazing how many tiny creatures there are in a single clutch. I can see how quickly a tank can be overrun if we aren't careful.

 

Finally got a quick photo of Miss Sneller

She is soooo pretty!

 

I transferred the little ones to a floating breeder box earlier today. I counted them as I moved them and right now I have 70 of the little creatures. I acclimated them to the 55 gallon tanks water and it seems so far they are doing just fine. As I was acclimating them I kept a close eye on them and during all that time none went through the very narrow slits in the breeder box so it looks like I will be able to keep them contained.

I put some guppy grass in there with them so they have lots of places to climb around. If all survive I will have my hands full. I am glad I discarded all the other clutches and am also glad I didn't allow this whole clutch to hatch. 70 of them is more than enough.

I will be keeping a very close eye on the tank so no clutches slip by me. Hopefully she will stop gifting me with them before much longer. All of the ones she's left for me have been laid over night so I check the tank very close every morning. It is amazing how many tiny creatures there are in a single clutch. I can see how quickly a tank can be overrun if we aren't careful.

As we have similar aged baby snails, maybe we could do a (small) trade when they’re big enough. Only if you want

Edit: Also. I didn’t think about this, but it’s going to be quite interesting to see what your little snails end up looking like. Since we don’t know what the dad looks like, it could be a total surprise.

 

As we have similar aged baby snails, maybe we could do a (small) trade when they’re big enough. Only if you want

We could probably do that It would be great if we both end up with a variety of colors. I can't know what color male Miss Sneller mated with so I can't know what color her babies will be. I can hope for a variety though.

 

We could probably do that It would be great if we both end up with a variety of colors. I can't know what color male Miss Sneller mated with so I can't know what color her babies will be. I can hope for a variety though.

Too small to tell for sure right now, but I had a gold parent and an ivory parent, so they will (probably) all have a light foot since light colors are recessive. For shell color though, anything’s possible.

 

She left me another clutch last night. This one and the one before it were pure white instead of the almost pink cream colored ones she first laid. I am wondering if this means the last 2 weren't fertilized. Maybe she has run out of the ability to fertilize them and I won't get any more viable eggs. That would actually be a good thing.

Babies have spread out in the breeder box instead of huddled together this morning. Looks like they are getting comfortable in their small home.

 

These little ones are growing fast. They have already just about doubled in size.


BTW: I am patting myself on the back. I finally figured out how to take a photo with my phone and post them here straight from it. Keep in mind, up until just a few months ago I was still using a tiny flip phone. This smart phone seems to be a lot smarter than me but I am learning

 

Coming to check in on Ms. Sneller and her little ones.

Here’s a photo I got this morning of one of mine on the wall:


I decided being stuck in the breeders net with buildup probably wasn’t too great for them, so I moved them into my shrimp tank where I knew they wouldn’t get eaten by their neighbors. It’s pretty hard to see in the photo, but I think I might have 100% golds.

 

So far I can't tell what color these little guys are going to be. They are only about 1/8th of a inch right now, maybe a tiny bit bigger so kinda hard to tell. I use my turkey baster to help keep the bottom of the breeder box fairly clean so I think mine will be alright in there for quite a while longer.

 

So far I can't tell what color these little guys are going to be. They are only about 1/8th of a inch right now, maybe a tiny bit bigger so kinda hard to tell. I use my turkey baster to help keep the bottom of the breeder box fairly clean so I think mine will be alright in there for quite a while longer.

I imagine the tight places for gunk and poo to get stuck in the mesh is why I had the issue. Yours should be okay

 

Little guys are growing like weeds. Mom is hanging out keeping an eye on them or trying to get some of their food. She does spend a lot of time either close to or hanging onto the breeder box.

 

View attachment 782983

Little guys are growing like weeds. Mom is hanging out keeping an eye on them or trying to get some of their food. She does spend a lot of time either close to or hanging onto the breeder box.

Yours seem to be almost twice the size of mine, even though mine are older!

Do you have hard water? I’m wondering if my soft water/low pH is slowing down their growth.

 

Yours seem to be almost twice the size of mine, even though mine are older!

Do you have hard water? I’m wondering if my soft water/low pH is slowing down their growth.

I am really amazed at how quickly these little guys are growing. Just a bit over 2 weeks ago they were about the size of the ball in a ball point pen.

I don't think your soft water is slowing down their growth. I actually have very soft water. pH hangs at 7.2 I run crushed coral in my filters, seashells in my tanks and add Equilibrium. Folks tell me my tap water is very close to RO water. TDS meter reads 21 from the tap meaning the water is almost devoid of minerals. I get it up around 100 with the Equilibrium.

What are you feeding them? Since mine are confined to a breeder box I can keep a constant source of food in there just for them. A couple days a week they get zucchini. On the other days I give them algae wafers. A couple of times I have put a very small amount of Bacter AE in there. Since yours are loose in your tank their food won't be as concentrated so they may not be getting as much food as mine are.

 

I am really amazed at how quickly these little guys are growing. Just a bit over 2 weeks ago they were about the size of the ball in a ball point pen.

I don't think your soft water is slowing down their growth. I actually have very soft water. pH hangs at 7.2 I run crushed coral in my filters, seashells in my tanks and add Equilibrium. Folks tell me my tap water is very close to RO water. TDS meter reads 21 from the tap meaning the water is almost devoid of minerals. I get it up around 100 with the Equilibrium.

What are you feeding them? Since mine are confined to a breeder box I can keep a constant source of food in there just for them. A couple days a week they get zucchini. On the other days I give them algae wafers. A couple of times I have put a very small amount of Bacter AE in there. Since yours are loose in your tank their food won't be as concentrated so they may not be getting as much food as mine are.

Interesting. That might be what it is then. I’m feeding them what’s left of vegetables for my plecos, shrimp/snail wafers, and algae wafers. I’m sure they get plenty of grazing on biofilm and such throughout the day.
Perhaps the cherry shrimp are getting to the food first.

My water was coming out the tap at 6.5 at one point, and with tannins and such would sometimes drop to 5.8 in the tank. However, now it comes out around 7.2 and stays around 6.4 in my angel tank and 6.8 in the rest . I believe my water hardness is somewhere between 0-30 ppm.

 

Not much to report. Their growth rate seems to have slowed down so I am sure they will be alright in the breeder box for quite a while longer. So far it looks like all are healthy and are all about the same size so no runts in the clutch. So far all look to be almost black or at least a very dark brown.

It won't be very long before I will need to decide what I am going to do with all of them. I may end up just opening the breeder box and let them loose in the tank. May be a few too many for a 55 gallon tank though 'specially with all the other fish in there.

 

I was starting to get concerned about Miss Sneller this morning. I noticed her attached to the lid of my tank. She was laying a clutch of eggs. I've never actually seen her do this so don't know how long it normally takes. She usually does it over night. She has been in the same position for about 3 hours now. As far as I can tell the clutch is almost all the way out of her.

now a few minutes later....I am happy to report Miss Sneller has finally finished the job. I had no idea it took this long for her to lay them. This clutch is the biggest one she has ever laid. This one is about 2 1/4 inches long. All previous ones were about an inch at most.

I am going to let it harden a little bit and then remove and destroy it here in a little while. I have to think there would actually be 2 or even 3 hundred eggs in this one.

Something strange about this mornings egg laying though. I noticed, what looks like what is left behind when I remove clutches of eggs, stuck on top of section of glass covering my tank. There were at least 5 spots that looked like eggs had been there and then removed.

I have to wonder if she went up there first, realized there would be no moisture, collected them and ended up laying them under the lid. That really is the only explanation I can come up with for what I am seeing. It seems they are intelligent creatures. Actually more intelligent than I had given them credit for.

 

I was starting to get concerned about Miss Sneller this morning. I noticed her attached to the lid of my tank. She was laying a clutch of eggs. I've never actually seen her do this so don't know how long it normally takes. She usually does it over night. She has been in the same position for about 3 hours now. As far as I can tell the clutch is almost all the way out of her.

now a few minutes later....I am happy to report Miss Sneller has finally finished the job. I had no idea it took this long for her to lay them. This clutch is the biggest one she has ever laid. This one is about 2 1/4 inches long. All previous ones were about an inch at most.

I am going to let it harden a little bit and then remove and destroy it here in a little while. I have to think there would actually be 2 or even 3 hundred eggs in this one.

Something strange about this mornings egg laying though. I noticed, what looks like what is left behind when I remove clutches of eggs, stuck on top of section of glass covering my tank. There were at least 5 spots that looked like eggs had been there and then removed.

I have to wonder if she went up there first, realized there would be no moisture, collected them and ended up laying them under the lid. That really is the only explanation I can come up with for what I am seeing. It seems they are intelligent creatures. Actually more intelligent than I had given them credit for.

Hm. Are you sure they aren’t spots from you previously removing clutches?

 

Hm. Are you sure they aren’t spots from you previously removing clutches?

Not possible. The original clutches were in a different tank. The clutches I've removed from the tank she is in now were on the same lid she laid these on and one time above the water line behind the breeder box. .

I remove the lids on the tank when I do my water changes and clean the glass each time. I did my water change Monday. These weren't there then. In fact I check them daily to make sure I don't miss any clutches of eggs. At first I though this was on the tank side of the glass and the eggs had fallen into the tank. Once I removed the lid and looked closer I realized it was on the outside of the glass so that couldn't have happened.

She had to have laid them and then removed them. There really is no other explanation for it.

 

All of my little ones seem to have gone MIA. After releasing them in the shrimp tank I stopped finding them... I can see a couple tiny shells but they are vacant.

Fortunately, it seems one of the little adventurers from breeder net days seems to have survived the corys, pleco, angels, and now, betta. Just a couple minutes ago I found this guy... he’s huge! About half the size of a pea I’d say, but I’m very happy to have found him.

He seems to be the only one right now. Not sure if any others will pop up... if not, that’s alright. It did take months for me to realize I had cory fry living in this tank though

 

Well shoot, I am sorry most of yours are gone. That little gold one sure is a cutie though. Mine look like they are gonna turn out looking pretty much like their Mom or maybe even a bit darker than her. Right now they all just look black.

 

Little guys and girls just got their home upgraded. They got out of that tiny breeder box into a 5.5 gallon tank now. the one I had already moved over there was at least twice as big as these are so I was afraid the cramped space was slowing their growth rate.

 

View attachment 788974

Little guys and girls just got their home upgraded. They got out of that tiny breeder box into a 5.5 gallon tank now.

That's a bunch of itty-bitties!

 

That's a bunch of itty-bitties!

Yep, I put 68 of them in there today. I allowed 70 to hatch. I had put one in there a couple of weeks ago and one is in my shrimp bowl.

Miss Sneller is still blessing me with a clutch of eggs a couple of times a week. She laid one yesterday on the front of one of my HOB filters a few inches above the water line. I am being very diligent about looking for, removing and destroying each clutch. 70 babies is more than enough.