Protect our water source

[Little Guys]

Question -  if you use a Planeria trap, what do you do after you trap them.  I believe we have a responsibility to not introduce non native species into our water source. I never flush or rinse anything down my drains.  

[Guppysnail]

Dump hydrogen peroxide from the grocery store on them.  They basically dissolve. 

[Little Guys]

On 4/23/2024 at 4:05 AM, Guppysnail said:

Dump hydrogen peroxide from the grocery store on them.  They basically dissolve. 

Thank you

[Shrimp Doggy Dogg]

On 4/23/2024 at 2:17 AM, Little Guys said:

Question -  if you use a Planeria trap, what do you do after you trap them.  I believe we have a responsibility to not introduce non native species into our water source. I never flush or rinse anything down my drains.  

I was under the impression that planaria live in basically every freshwater lake/stream.

[Little Guys]

On 4/27/2024 at 11:28 AM, Shrimp Doggy Dogg said:

I was under the impression that planaria live in basically every freshwater lake/stream.

I don't know about that, I just know that I don't want them in my shrimp tank if they will harm my shrimp.  I am not happy about the idea of No Planaria in my tank as a poison in a closed system so doing a bit of research.

[Shrimp Doggy Dogg]

On 4/27/2024 at 11:47 AM, Little Guys said:

I don't know about that, I just know that I don't want them in my shrimp tank if they will harm my shrimp.  I am not happy about the idea of No Planaria in my tank as a poison in a closed system so doing a bit of research.

Unfortunately, poisoning the whole system is probably the only way to be sure you got them all.  But yeah, I don't like taking that route either.

[Little Guys]

On 4/27/2024 at 11:55 AM, Shrimp Doggy Dogg said:

Unfortunately, poisoning the whole system is probably the only way to be sure you got them all.  But yeah, I don't like taking that route either.

Well, I am going to set a trap and see if they even exist in my tank.  I might have misidentified the little critter.  Putting in a trap may not catch a bunch however if they exist it should at least catch some, thereby letting me know if I have a problem or not.

[mynameisnobody]

@Little Guys I’m curious to see what trap will catch planeria, I’m not sure this is even possible. Your best bet is to take a photo. It could be detritus worms which are harmless. 

[johnnyxxl]

Don't fry and small fish like endlers eat planaria?  

[Little Guys]

Update -  I have had a Planaria trap in my tank for 3 days.  There is not a lot of activity but it looks like there are one or two.  I found a worm looking thing on the glass of my tank and trapped it in a suction cup, see picture, Is this a Planaria? If yes, and there is no evidence of a big outbreak will it stop them if I stop feeding for a few days?  I don't like the idea of poisoning my entire tank.  If this is a smalll outbreak I want to nip it in the bud right now.

 

[Biotope Biologist]

Thats a leech and planaria are ubiquitous in NA as are many of the invertebrates you see in your aquarium just appear. Most are harmless and a sign of a healthy aquarium 

[Little Guys]

On 4/29/2024 at 9:40 AM, Biotope Biologist said:

Thats a leech and planaria are ubiquitous in NA as are many of the invertebrates you see in your aquarium just appear. Most are harmless and a sign of a healthy aquarium 

Are you saying that Leeches are harmless to shrimp?  From everything I am reading they will eat snails and shrimp.  The thing was white on the side of my tank and turned darker when I trapped it.  Can you give me more information?  What kind of leech is it?

[Biotope Biologist]

It appears to be a brown leech when they get bigger they will consume fry and shrimplets but I have had leeches in with my shrimp and they could never catch the adults.

 

Leeches make great fish food and they tend to mostly eat detritus. There are a few species though that are predators and can even take down small frogs or fish if given the chance but those are much much larger. Approximately 6” and for whatever reason rarely show up in fish tanks.

[Little Guys]

I am on information overload.  Please let me know if this topic should be moved to its own thread.

I am reading about leeches and have found so much conflicting information.  I have Googled leeches, Youtubed leeches and looker here.  Some say leeches are harmless, some say they will kill your shrimp (I just got to the point where they are mating) and some say they will kill your snails but leave fish alone.  I have even found one articles that says leeches and detritus worms are the same thing.  I am trying to figuer out if leeches are actually a problem or if people just think they are a problem because leeches ick people out.

Please tell me about your experience with leeches,what their effect was in your tank and if you treated them or not.

[Biotope Biologist]

On 4/29/2024 at 11:25 AM, Little Guys said:

I am on information overload.  Please let me know if this topic should be moved to its own thread.

Haha of course this happens all the time! 
 

Leeches are a large group of invertebrates. Some stay small like your brown leech some get large. Most are harmless living life in the sediment eating decaying matter. There are some predatory ones but they are usually quite large compared to the detritus eating counterparts. Several inches long and have beautiful olive green skin with tiger stripes. Those are the ones you typically want to remove and kill. The brown and black ones tend to be harmless. They will eat baby snails and shrimp if they can catch them but mostly just content eating decaying matter.

 

Also behavior we are learning that most leeches we find latched on to fish and amphibians are actually just hitchhiking and not parasitizing the host. As was previously thought. 
 

I treated mine by feeding them to my fish. They ate them greedily.

 

here is a pic of s predatory leech. This specimen is quite large and they will catch and eat anything they can get their mouths on. I usually find them attached to turtles or large fish.

Edited Monday at 06:37 PM by Biotope Biologist

[Little Guys]

On 4/29/2024 at 11:35 AM, Biotope Biologist said:

Haha of course this happens all the time! 
 

Leeches are a large group of invertebrates. Some stay small like your brown leech some get large. Most are harmless living life in the sediment eating decaying matter. There are some predatory ones but they are usually quite large compared to the detritus eating counterparts. Several inches long and have beautiful olive green skin with tiger stripes. Those are the ones you typically want to remove and kill. The brown and black ones tend to be harmless. They will eat baby snails and shrimp if they can catch them but mostly just content eating decaying matter.

 

Also behavior we are learning that most leeches we find latched on to fish and amphibians are actually just hitchhiking and not parasitizing the host. As was previously thought. 
 

I treated mine by feeding them to my fish. They ate them greedily.

 

here is a pic of s predatory leech. This specimen is quite large and they will catch and eat anything they can get their mouths on. I usually find them attached to turtles or large fish.

I am quoting this so others can see it, this is great information, thank you so much.  I will try not to worry about it and see how it goes.  My shrimp have just started to actually breed .  I am actually not crazy about the smails although they are interesting.  I have two Rhamshorn that I do want to keep.  My sister gave me a blue, it looks striped but I think those are growth rings.  One of its offspring is spotted like a blue leopard snail.  I do control the snail population in my tank.  Thank you so much for this information. 

[Guppysnail]

On 4/27/2024 at 2:47 PM, Little Guys said:

I don't know about that, I just know that I don't want them in my shrimp tank if they will harm my shrimp.  I am not happy about the idea of No Planaria in my tank as a poison in a closed system so doing a bit of research.

I have never used no planaria. I have used fenbendazole in shrimp tanks several times with complete success and no harm to the shrimp. 
.1 (point one) milligram per 10 gallons. Wait 24 hours dose again on top of what you already did no water change.  Wait 5-7 days vac and do a 50 % water change. Resume normal schedule. 
 

Keep an eye on ammonia as planaria die they release ammonia. This is NOT snail safe. 
 

I feed lots of live foods so encounter planaria more often than I care to over the years. In 5 years of shrimp in all my tanks I have never had an issue using fenbendazole. I buy Panacur C dog dewormer on Amazon. Use a gram scale that goes to tenths. 
 

edit seems I did not refresh my browser and missed the leech ID sorry. 

[Little Guys]

Thank you Guppy Snail, this is good information and a useful note on Amonia.  I don't have Planaria, I have Leeches.  Is the treatment the same?  I know that you can starve Planaria out, is it possible to starve Leeches out?

[Little Guys]

I grabbed my pipet and started slurping up Leeches that were on the glass of my aquarium.  They all seemed to collect on the same side.  I have 5 in a small cup and now that they are not a threat to my babies, they are actually pretty interesting.  I would love to send a video but I don't know how to attach a vido I made.

 

[Little Guys]

I promise I will move beyond this however like any new source of learning, I am having fun.  My sister sent me a pretty good article and I wanted to share it with you considering I had so much trouble finding actual information.  From what the article says I suspect I have Snail Leeches.

 

https://www.aquasabi.com/aquascaping-wiki_parasites_leeches