Unknown Parasite

[ChelseaL1991]

I have a 15g tank with 2 south american puffer fish and 2 cory cat fish. I went snail hunting at a pond and somehow brought back baby leeches and some kind of parasite. I would like to know what people opinions are for the best way and safest way of getting rid of these gross things. I've got one opinion from a fish store representative and she said take everything out of my tank and boil it and put my fish into a hospital tank.

Thanks Chelsea.

 

[sarah40011]

i have leech in one of my tanks but they seem to be harmless and just eat small snails. (they are small and brown not the big black gross things) at first i was very panicked and looked at a lot of info to get rid of them. the meds that kill them are illegal as far a s i can tell and the only other way that seemed to work for people was to evacuate the fish to a new home. can you seed the filter with mature media? yours may be leech infected. will the lfs give you any? then people were ditching their plants and chucking loads of salt on everything, stripping the tank down, boiling everything and starting again... theres lots of instruction online if you google it. or you could pick out what you see and hope for the best? others suggested leaving liver in the tank to attract them but you would have to monitor this very closely so it didnt foul the water... you need to look into medicating your fish in their hosp tank too if they have parasites... this is all worst case senario, maybe someone on here has experienced it and can guide you. good luck

 

[Caprichoso]

You said you un-wantingly brought back leeches and a "parasite". Do you know what type of parasite it is? Fish symptoms? Knowing if it's a flatworm, roundworm or something else entirely will determine how you medicate the tank if that's what you're wanting to do.

 

[ChelseaL1991]

1

 

[ChelseaL1991]

1

 

[ChelseaL1991]

You said you un-wantingly brought back leeches and a "parasite". Do you know what type of parasite it is? Fish symptoms? Knowing if it's a flatworm, roundworm or something else entirely will determine how you medicate the tank if that's what you're wanting to do.

So my boyfriend thought it would be fun to also bring home a leech for my lobster. Little did he know that the leech was carrying eggs and soon after laid them. I think that it is possible that one of the eggs or.. a few I guess fell onto a snail that we had put into out puffers tank. And I have a bunch of small, thin, white worms living in the gravel of my tank. Along with that I also have seemed to bring back small parasites. I have looked at them and tried to see what they look like. And so far they look like little dots.. maybe even triangles.. that dash around in the water. So far I think that they live in the gravel because I have taken a sample of water from the top portion of the tank and do not see any parasites swimming about. Also I have been checking my fish everyday to see if I notice strange behavior and to see if there is anything noticeable on the body. So far I have seen nothing different. I do have a lot of trumpet snails so I am wondering if possibly the snails are the ones being fed off of.

Sorry about all the duplicates... Computer was being weird.

i have leech in one of my tanks but they seem to be harmless and just eat small snails. (they are small and brown not the big black gross things) at first i was very panicked and looked at a lot of info to get rid of them. the meds that kill them are illegal as far a s i can tell and the only other way that seemed to work for people was to evacuate the fish to a new home. can you seed the filter with mature media? yours may be leech infected. will the lfs give you any? then people were ditching their plants and chucking loads of salt on everything, stripping the tank down, boiling everything and starting again... theres lots of instruction online if you google it. or you could pick out what you see and hope for the best? others suggested leaving liver in the tank to attract them but you would have to monitor this very closely so it didnt foul the water... you need to look into medicating your fish in their hosp tank too if they have parasites... this is all worst case senario, maybe someone on here has experienced it and can guide you. good luck

I don't want to medicate it I don't have to seeing as my fish are scaleless and also very hard to come by. I might try and set up my 10g tank and maybe transfer the puffers there while I fix my other tank.

 

[Caprichoso]

You should have a look on the forum at the aquarium hitchhikers thread. The things that you're calling parasites may just be harmless copepods. They could be anything from springtails to cyclops to daphnia. And the white worms may be planaria. Look up those names and have a look to see if these are what you have. I'd only be concerned if you have planaria and are keeping shrimp as they can be harmful to baby shrimp, otherwise, nothing to worry about. Most copepods are a sign of a excess nutrients in the tank so don't panic yet just look at some pics to see if you can identify what they are. Once you identify them, post on the forum and someone can advise you further on it. Most of these copepods can be decreased by not over feeding and by doing regular gravel vac. As far as the leeches, just hand pick them out...use some tweezers to grasp them.

 

[ChelseaL1991]

Okay so I have been able to get a better view at what the bugs are because they have now grown. They are little white beetle/moth, with in antennas. I see they on the lid of tank out of the water now crawling around.

 

[Caprichoso]

Hmm, a pic would help because I can't think of what that might be. Wiping the lid regularly will probably discourage them. Try to get a pic up if you can.