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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, | 
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 |
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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