Seriously creeped out!!!

[_BaDgUy_]

Don't know where to put this post, so I guess I'll put it in here!!

I've got a 10 gallon tank set up with some California Black Worms.
Haven't been maintaining the tank too much in the past few weeks, but everything seems OK.

Today, I checked it out, and I've got some weird stuff in there!!

Here is a picture of what I found in there :

Actual size of this thing is about an inch long, but can contract and expand anywhere between half an inch and one and a half inch.

Large pic (link) : http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/dwarfcichlids/help.jpg

Small pic for the forum :

Now, what the heck is it??????

 

[afra]

It looks like a leach. You will find them quite often in black worms, at least from what I have seen in the past.

 

[_BaDgUy_]

Just great... I've had the CBW culture for around 5-6 months, and now these things are showing up!

 

[tjudy]

All the worms I have ever gotten or seen fro CBW have the leaches in them. They are not the blood-sucking type though (or so I have been told).

 

[apisto-nut]

I had some of these come with plants I ordered " hitch hikers"
I believe they live off plant and algae " the green stuff " not blood just like Tjudy says , I read it somewhere on the net as well .

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0860430.html

 

[_BaDgUy_]

Thanks for all the info!Any way to get rid of these critters permanently??

 

[Apistogramm-Sam]

Pick them out with tweezers and feed them to your fish. My fish always loved to eat them and the leeches never had any negative effects on the fish.

 

[beleg]

IME Not all fish eat leeches. Paradise fish eradicate them and planaria..

 

[dhm325]

I feed black worms to my fish regularly. Leaches like the one in your photograph have always been present in the cultures I purchase from California Aquatics. I alwys picks them out with a tweezer. They have never caused me any problems.

 

[_BaDgUy_]

What would the leeches eat??

David

 

[dhm325]

I am not certain but I remember reading that they feed on the black worms. I any case, I have never seen them attack a fish.

 

[_BaDgUy_]

That would explain why the CBW population seems to be going down...

Out come the intruders!