Eww...."shivers"....

[Fella]

I had a pet leech as a kid. I kept it in a jam jar, and it was fascinating. When they "bite" it is painless, and I never picked up any illness from it draining me, nor would I have expected it to.


I recommend you find some kid on your street to deal with it.

 

[Annastasia]

Ugh....that's disgusting. Good luck getting them out Toxis! Do you have a plan for them yet?

 

[Jer-]

ewwww..... I've had lots of leaches bite me, and they are a lot grosser when attching themselves to your skin than anyone could ever imagine.
I'd suggest you get someone else to net the shrimp out. Then add loads of salt or other evil poison to the tank to kill the leaches.
Then fish out the ornaments and gravel with a net, and put them in boiling water.
Then pour the water and dead leaches down the loo. Or preferably, someone elses loo, just in case they come back to life and slime their way back up the U-bend....

haha sorry, but i just started laughing when i read this.
But yea, it sounds like it would thouroughly clear out the leaches

 

[Barry P]

Im not sqeamish so it wouldnt bother me, but, if leeches are harmful to your tank then you have to do something. My advice would be to get a tweezers or some kind of device like a fire thongs and get them out.

There are flying leeches in this world by the way.....just a thought!!

 

[OohFeeshy]

Depending on whats in there, I know Interpret does a med that kills leeches. I *think* it might kill the filter bacteria though, but check it. Its one of the highest numbers of med, I think.

 

[john5748]

There are flying leeches in this world by the way.....just a thought!!

You are full of good news , hope you get rid of them soon.

This is also one of the reasons all of my plants are made from plastic

 

[CatLover]

How intereting! I've never had a leech problem *knock on wood* but be thankful you don't have any fish in that tank. It would be rather disturbing to look in there one day and see this thing hanging on the side of your fish.

If I were you, I would place the shrimp in a different container, then spend a good amount of time picking out the leeches and putting them in a jar. I would then boil and scrub everything in the tank, plop the shrimp back in, then research leeches and set them up their own little environment. That would be so kool! They are very neat little critters.

Just be careful the next time you buy live plants. Wash thoroughly

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Ok i've had a think about what i am going to do, thankfully the tank is only 5gals and only has the shrimp in it which makes things alot easier, so im either going to

a. Try and catch shrimp(more difficult than it sounds, he tends to wedge himself between a particular ornement in the tank when he knows i want to move him) and move shrimp to another temporary tank. Pour boiling water into 5gal tank with everything in it killing the leaches in there- incidentally this will kill off the filter bacteria but its a small filter anyways and won't take much to cycle it again in another tank.

b. Hmm...Maybe put a piece of fish or somthing in the tank and hope the leaches latch onto it and then take the fish meat out? Will leachs even attack dead meat or do they only go for the live blood pumped stuff?

Would leachs go for an amoured shrimp at all?

 

[prankster705]

The shrimp is probably too thick in armour. I kind of like all that stuff and would LOVE to have leaches at home, though not with fish. They will reproduce very fast. They probably drink just blood of live stuff.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hmm, i think i will go for the boiling water option then, its sort of the only option where i don't have to tough the things and can just flush them out. Also the tank has too large trumpet snails in it, could the leachs live off the snails at all? If theres a chance they could attach themselves to the inner shell of the snail at the bottom i'll probably get rid of the snails as well.

 

[BrookeLea]

Aw man... I've never heard of a leach infestation in a fish tank! That's pretty creepy. I've got the willies over here and I've never even SEEN a leach in person... Gross man!

I wouldn't be able to boil them or touch them... I'd just end up putting the tank outside and buying a new one.

 

[Yarra]

PICS or BAN!!!

 

[becs66]

If the tanks is glass then I would avoid the boiling water as the sudden change in temperature may well crack the glass!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The leachs aern't very big, just very long and thin, probably havn't had a good meal for a long time although a couple of weeks back i did see a massive leach in my main tank, thankfully the fish were trying to kill it and by the time i scooped it out it was dead(yay for fish!). I dunno, since you all seem so interested in the leachs i might see if i can covince my fiance to let one bite him so it will get all fat and massive and then take a pic of it for you guys to see .

 

[Fella]

There's no need to kill them really.

I'd try the bloody meat approach first, it'll save having to cycle the tank if it works.