leeches..possibly?

[scottie73]

hey all
i took a piece of wood out of my lda08 tank today,rested it on a piece of glass whist cleaning the tank...loads of little leeche like things came off the wood!!!they started out looking like little(2mm max)black/grey dots,but as the water pooled on them they started to move azround ..little wormy/leechy looking things...whatever they are they are uninvited guests...how/what do i do to rid the tank of them??????????????

 

[scatz]

wormer plus?, they look 'orrible

 

[scottie73]

they do..i squished all that i could find...i was looking at interpet no.12 as a possibility?

 

[Doodles]

http://www.waterwereld.nu/bloedzuigereng.php


http://aquariummicrogallery.blogspot.com/

They could flatworms rather than leeches, I think wormerplus should def kill them if leeches and maybe if flatworms

http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1763

Wormerplus is safe for plecs etc and doesn't cause any long term problems afaik


I had something like this is my hospital tank once, never found anything that actually killed them but they weren't parasitic luckily, had to do daily waterchange to get rid. I did loads of research to find out what they were but never knew.

 

[Doodles]

they do..i squished all that i could find...i was looking at interpet no.12 as a possibility?

I would consider wormerplus over interpet no 12, its much safer and less damaging for the plecs and fish imo

 

[scottie73]

thanks for the info..i have found wormer plus for just under £8 on ebay..treats 500gallons so i will have a bit spare as its only a 2ft breeding tank..lol

 

[Doodles]

thanks for the info..i have found wormer plus for just under £8 on ebay..treats 500gallons so i will have a bit spare as its only a 2ft breeding tank..lol

Is it free delivery?
AE have it for £6.99 for 500 gallons but think you have to pay delivery.

EDIT TO ADD
sorry, nevermind, AE are out of stock:wb:

 

[scottie73]

Is it free delivery?
AE have it for £6.99 for 500 gallons but think you have to pay delivery.

EDIT TO ADD
sorry, nevermind, AE are out of stock:wb:

plymouth discus on ebay...£6.99 + 80p delivery...

 

[Doodles]

Thats where i got my original lot from:yes:

 

[Princess x]

Good Luck with ridding them Scottie :yes:

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Probably harmless Flatworms (Planaria), if you are not sure put them in a beaker of water, and give it a swirl, Planaria don't swim, they will just settle out, but leeches swim with an S motion, just like an eel. Also if they are Planaria their head should have eye spots and be v shaped, a bit like this :>.

Even if they are leeches, they are fairly unlikely to be ones that damage your fish, I'd suggest just suctioning them out when you see them, as whatever you put in the tank to kill them is likely to be much more damaging to the health of your tank and fish than they are.

cheers Darrel

 

[Rabbit]

I found somthing the same at work. Gravel vac's and consistant salt dosages killed it for me, didnt appear parasitic.

 

[Irene0100]

let us know how you get on!.
i get flat worm in my tanks and find it hard to get rid of. They dont hurt the fish but will eat fish eggs. they hide in the filter, when you wash the sponges out you may find some in the bottom of the bucket.
Also often on underside of rocks and caves.
I have been told its best to starve them but i cant do this with fry in tanks who need food every day.
I keep numbers down by washing the big stones etc in bucket of tank water.
would like to eliminate -So i try to find flat worm eating fish! some love it, but cant all be kept easily with breeding plecs -so a bit trial and error at the moment. would be good if I could find a med that killed them without hurting the fish but have not found anything.

 

[scottie73]

i have got some wormer plus..but i am abit worried about treating as i have just lost aload of cherry shrimp after adding aload of plant which had been treated (unkown to me)..i don't know what it was treated with but it killed alot of shrimp within 1hr of being in the tank!!

 

[Irene0100]

I would be careful about using wormer! may be best to see if you can find any more and get a good id on them.
if they are flat worms a good way to get them to surface is to put a frozen prawn (defrosted) on a clip and watch for 20 mins - they love the smell of it and will come out to feast.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Scottie, sounds like the plants were probably treated with a copper sulph(f)ate dip, to kill snails/snail eggs. Copper compounds are very toxic to shrimps.

Really I'd agree with Irene, Flat worms (Planaria) are easily trapped, and that is probably the best course of action.

I'd also think about any reasons for why you have lots of Planaria, it may be entirely natural population cycles and they may just decline for no apparent reason in the same way they've multiplied, alternatively it might be over-feeding, change to meatier food, they've fed on a dead fish, (any missing)? etc.

When things change in the tank, I think of it like "CIS Miami" or trying to find out why the cars fuel consumption is cr*p , piece together any evidence and then change one thing at a time, otherwise it's easy to buy new plugs, filters, have the car tuned etc, before finding you've got a plastic bag stuck in the air intake (yep that was how I spent my sunday last week)

As a general rule I try and avoid adding any medication unless:
I'm absolutely sure I need it,
I know what I'm treating,
I know what's in the medication
and
I know what effects it's likely to have on all the tanks inhabitants.

cheers Darrel

 

[scottie73]

thanks for the info,i don't like using meds if i can help it ...as for loss of fish..nothing lost..only 4 fish in there,4 lda08's so im not sure how i got them in the first place????only thing i have added was some bogwood a few months ago and that other than substrate is all that is in the tank.thx irene for the tip..i will try it tonight..so i will see how it goes.

 

[Doodles]

As a general rule I try and avoid adding any medication unless:
I'm absolutely sure I need it,
I know what I'm treating,
I know what's in the medication
and
I know what effects it's likely to have on all the tanks inhabitants.

me too, i hate meds. Just out of interest are there any you actually avoid, ie malachite green is a good example.



Good luck catching them Scottie

 

[dw1305]

Flat worms where do they come from? and medication

Hi all,
Scottie wrote "so im not sure how i got them in the first place???".

Yes it always amazes me how they manage it, they seem to be in every pond, semi-permanent puddle, water tank etc, although sometimes you can't imagine how they got there. I've found them in all my water butts, these were new when they went in, and the only water they get is rainwater of the roof, so how did they get there? I just don't know.

Thought occurs that as the only occupants are LDA08 (Ancistrus claro), and although you are trying to condition them, you could just feed vegetables and fruit for a while?

Doodles wrote "me too, i hate meds. Just out of interest are there any you actually avoid, ie malachite green is a good example".

Yes, although I have used "Esha Exit", which I think has malachite green in it, that would be the general sort of thing - bleach, any antibiotics, copper based biocides, "algae killer" (usually Simazine based) etc. also regular treatment of anything, Discus with Flubenol for example. You don't know what long term effects they are going to have.

All my tanks are planted, and lightly/moderately stocked, and I want the tanks to have shrimps, Asellus, Planaria, MTS and even some algae in them, I'm sure it makes them more resilient and more stable. (think of it like "Live rock" for marines or adding springtails and wood-lice to tree-frog vivaria).

Ideally all I want to add to the tank is very good quality water (10% water change with rain water in my case) and (again ideally live) food (and vegetables).

If I do have a genuine out-break of disease or parasites - White Spot or Camallanus for example, I want to treat them with a specific treatment.

If some thing's not right, but I'm not sure what it is I change some more water every day, add another filter and wait, if it goes away I was probably over-stocked and the fish stressed, and I need to remove some fish.

If I do have a disease problem by now it will probably be apparent, if I'm still not sure I'll type the symptoms into the search engines on good web sites, this one, Planet Catfish, Loaches on-line, Apistogramma forums etc. and hopefully something will come up, I'll get a name and I'll be able to find the best med. for it.

cheers Darrel

 

[Doodles]

Thanks for the feedback Darrel.
Its worth watching what meds come out of Germany, they banned malachite green completely last year so have been working on alternative ich meds.

Sorry Scottie for going off track.