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Strange worms in substrate...?

REDSTEVEO

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Joined
31 Mar 2008
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Hi all,

One of the dangers of examining your substrate close up with a magnifying glass is that you sometimes see things you wish you hadn't. This happened to me today so I did some searching on the internet and found this video on YouTube.

Trouble is there was no explanation for what it was or what was done about it.

Anyone here got any ideas?



Cheers,

Steve.
 
Hi all,
I agree with Tom, definitely not a Flatworm (Planaria), they glide.

Looks like a Leech, they move by looping, and have a distinct sucker on the rear end. You can see the head end waving about, before the rapid slide forward, and re-attachment of the rear sucker.

I have them in all the tanks, and I think that they are pretty well universal in fresh water. They aren't the blood sucking type, they are predators of other invertebrates, although they will eat fish eggs etc.

They are nocturnal so a lot of people will have them in the tank without realising.

<"Baiting works, and I have a few small flat slates"> that I leave in the tank. Every couple of days I pick the slate out, and on the under-side there will be a few Leeches and Planaria.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi
I think this is a mini version of your well know leeches. .only grows to about a inch but are unsightly. .the only way you can get rid of them is by shutting down the whole aquarium and starting again.
clear.png

hoggie
 
Hi all,
TRICHLORFON will kill leeches, but it is horrible toxic stuff. I have Lumbriculus in the tanks, so it isn't an option for me (although I wouldn't use it anyway).

Panacur kills Planaria, but not Leeches or Lumbriculus.

cheers Darrel
 
Can't you give them the chair?:D

By that I mean the battery approach?

I did this with hydra but I also found it drove planaria mental, they couldn't help heading for the electrodes/wire which then killed them too...not sure if it will atract leaches.
 
Doesn't look like tubifex to me. I thought tubifex usually stay in the substrate and there are usually clumps of them together semi submerged with their heads sticking out to breathe or catch food.
This looks like some other kind of worm although not sure which, it just shows us what can appear in our tanks and we had no idea they were there..

Steve
 
Can't you give them the chair?:D

By that I mean the battery approach?

I did this with hydra but I also found it drove planaria mental, they couldn't help heading for the electrodes/wire which then killed them too...not sure if it will atract leaches.
Any chance you can elaborate a bit more on this battery technique? Cables electricity and water? What size battery, how does this work?

Steve
 
Hi Steve.
I got it from a thread on here. Bugs you may encounter in your aquarium..
At least I think that's what it was called. I used, a twelve volt battery as I didn't have a nine volt.
Just two wires from each terminal kept separated/kept apart into the tank for over 30 mins.
Brilliant for wiping out hydra and the planaria I've not seend any since.
I recomend goung through the thread first if you can find it. It may of been LondonDragon( Paulo. in the invert section.
 
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