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FAQs on Parasitic Marine Worm Diseases:
Leeches/Hirudineans
Related Articles: Marine
Parasitic
Disease, Parasitic Worms, Roundworms,
Related FAQs: Fish
Worm Diseases 1,
Marine Worm Parasites
2, Marine Worm Parasites 3, & FAQs on
Marine Worm Parasites: Diagnosis/Symptomology,
Etiology/Prevention,
Cures That Don't
Work, Cures That Do Work,
Products/Manufacturers...
Flukes/Trematodes,
Tapeworms/Cestodes,
"Other" Worms and Worm-Like Parasites...
Paravortex/Black Spot Disease, Anthelminthics/Vermifuges... De-wormers
(Piperazine, Praziquantel...) &
FAQs,
Yellow Tang Disease, Parasitic
Disease 2, Parasitic Disease 3, Parasitic
Marine Tanks, Parasitic Reef Tanks,
Cryptocaryoniasis, Marine Ich,
Marine Velvet
Disease Biological
Cleaners,
Treating Parasitic Disease, Using
Hyposalinity to Treat Parasitic Disease, Roundworms, Yellow
Tangs, Tang Health/Disease,
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Mmm, two holding/sucking discs... tapered toward the
cephalic end...
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Marine leech problem
Hey there, M<Hi Erik, MacL here with you this evening.>
I have been searching all over your site and the rest of the internet and still
can not find any information on how to eradicate marine leeches. <I have got to
say you surprised me on this one. I knew of fresh water and even brackish but
not straight marine.> The picture you have on this page
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fshwrmdisfaqs.htm is as close as I can get to a
description of this problem. These leeches are on my seahorses, gobies, and
snails. I have tried pulling them off one by one with a pair of tweezers,
freshwater dips, and formalin dips. While the formalin worked faster than the
freshwater dips, all this does is kill the leeches currently on the fish. What
can I do to completely eradicate them from my tank? Will I have to put the fish
in quarantine after another formalin bath and then kill all remaining
invertebrates in my display tank? I hope not! <I think there might be another
way around this.>
Do give you an idea of the gravity of the problem, the last formalin dip I did
on my mandarin yielded 34 leeches of varying sizes mostly on the underside of
the fins. The dip on my largest female seahorse yielded another 16 leeches of
varying sizes. I have taken a closer look at some of my larger snails and I can
clearly see the distinctive body shape of these creatures poking out of the
shell. <Youch your poor fish and invertebrates.>
While so far all the fish are still eating and behaving normally other than a
twitch here and there I am worried that if the problem persists for too long it
will just get to large to control. I wish I could show you pictures but my
camera is out on loan and I won't get it back till next week. <Please please
get some pictures I really have to see this. But in the meantime. You don't
mention whether or not you have tried anything like neon gobies or cleaner
shrimp or even cleaner wrasse? Some type of parasite eater? That would be my
first suggestion. Then I would pull all the live creatures out of the tank so
that only the rock was left. Then dip all the fish again. Pull all the leaches
off the inverts that you can. Add the cleaner shrimp etc and put them in
quarantine. Leave the leaches be in the main tank for at least six weeks. Keep
a close eye on the fish, hopefully the cleaners will do their jobs and clean the
fish and invertebrates. You may have to switch quarantine tanks later to keep
the leeches from establishing there. I've asked another person to take a look at
your letter as well. Perhaps they will have additional suggestions. Please keep
in touch and let me know what's going on. MacL>
Please help! Thanks in advance!
--Erik DeLong
Saltwater leeches
Hey MacL, <Hi again Erik>
Thanks for your reply. I did end up getting a cleaner shrimp and a cleaner
wrasse. <Good!> I did not want to get them originally because of the shrimp
will eat my seahorse fry and wrasse I thought would harass the seahorses too
much. <Very possibly and you might not want to keep them long term but you
definitely needed them for this.>
Since the last dip I wrote you about, two of my seahorses had a leech each and
my goby 2. Since adding the wrasse and the cleaner shrimp, I cannot see any
leeches attached to any fish in the tank! WooHoo!!! <That's wonderful but these
things cycle and you must keep a diligent eye on them. What about the snails? Do
they have any? My thoughts were that the shrimps might take care of the snails
and the wrasse the seahorses.>
While I am happy for the mean time, I think the wrasse has done the job rather
than the cleaner shrimp. My only concern now is that maybe I should get another
wrasse to make sure leeches don't attach themselves to the fish that are
supposed to be eating them! <Noooo that's vicious cycle. And the point to
getting a wrasse and a shrimp, they can take care of each other. But please
watch them closely.>
I have my digital camera back so I will take pictures if I see any more leeches
and then send them to you. Thanks again for your help! <Please do. Good luck,
MacL>
--Erik
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Hitch hiker ID Please?
Folks,
<Howdy>
The attached picture is of a "creature" that I found in my new
75 gallon
reef tank.
<No file attached>
The tank is cycling with live rock only at this time. There
are a few smallish crabs and snails and whatnot that came in on the live
rock; no harm done. However, I found this "thing"
crawling around on the
DSB yesterday. It moves like an inchworm, attaching to surfaces
with its
mouth and pulling itself into a bell curve before attaching with its tail
and so on. The scary thing is that the oral opening looks A LOT
like a
lamprey. Unlike lamprey, it has a suction cup like tail as
well.
<Ah ha! (imagine best Sherlock Holmes impression). Does sound like a
leech>
I've posted on many boards and everyone seems stumped. I was
wondering if
you could help. I do have SOME time as the tank is cycling. However,
I
don't want to lose track of it, or "let it be" if it is harmful.
<I'd remove this animal>
I'd sure
be upset if I found it one day attached to and sucking the life out of my
clowns or Dottyback!
Thank you in advance
David
PS. I've read the Reef Invert book from cover to cover and am
on round
two. It's a great resource and is extremely entertaining in
that "Fenner,
Calfo, WWM" way.
<Mmm, sometimes predictability is fine. Bob Fenner> |
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Re: Hitch hiker ID Please?
Boy it's been a long week ;)
Sorry. Picture is now attached.
<D>
<Much more definitely a leech. Again, I'd give it the heave-ho. All
Hirudineans are parasitic... Bob Fenner> |
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