In the course of putting along your aquarium surroundings, you will introduce a variety of living organisms: plants, invertebrates, "living" rock and alternative media for beneficial bacteria, and in fact fish. However, as in any environment, parasites could find their way in. One common parasite that can be damaging to your aquarium environment and harmful to your fish is that the leech.

A leech is an annelid, or segmented worm; it's flattened, with a sucker on both the tail and the mouth. Leeches propel themselves forward by using both suckers, manufacturing a motion kind of like that of an inchworm. Most live in water; there are freshwater, saltwater, and terrestrial varieties. Several leeches, given the opportunity, can attach themselves to humans and different creatures, sucking the host creature's blood. It had been common medical follow within the Middle Ages to "bleed" a patient by attaching a leech to the patient's body and permitting the leech to drink his fill. Medieval medicine wrongly held that the body was composed of 4 principal fluids, or "humors," which an imbalance among these humors was the main reason for disease. Blood was one in all the humors and was typically thought to be in excess; therefore, bleeding a patient helped bring the extent of blood back to balance with the opposite humors.

Leeches are sometimes simple to identify in your aquarium: it's unlikely you'll see any of the larger varieties, however freshwater leeches that may notice their method into your aquarium will still be up to 2 inches long. Leeches swim in an undulating motion. If they're hooked up to a fish, they will be heart-shaped, as they curl up onto your fish's body, fins, or gills. The odd leech bite isn't going to hurt your fish in any major approach, but an infestation will cause major problems, inflicting fish to become listless and thin. Leech bites can render fish prone to different diseases; open wounds will become infected. And a leech can transfer microbial diseases from one fish to another.

Leeches might first enter your tank via live food that comes from leech-infested waters. If you depend upon live food that you just grow yourself, you'll be able to greatly scale back the prospect of a leech infestation. Leeches will additionally return via new fish that you introduce, or new plant life. Be positive to examine new creatures or plants completely; if you're concerned, you'll keep new fish quarantined for a amount of time before allowing them to mix together with your existing specimens. And you can place new plants in a very potassium permanganate solution, five mg/l, for concerning an hour before introducing them to your tank. The potassium permanganate can kill any leeches which may be hiding in the foliage.

If you discover a leech connected to your fish, don't be tempted to remove it with a combine of tweezers (or pliers!); leeches burrow themselves into your fish's body to draw blood, and forcible removal will seriously harm your fish. Instead, bathe your fish for regarding fifteen minutes in a very 2.5 % saline solution. This should cause the leech to jettisoning, or to loosen its grip such that you'll ease it out without leaving any leech elements inside your fish. If your fish are sensitive to salt -- for instance, sure species of catfish -- then saline answer can not work; you'll would like to medicate your entire tank by adding one milligram of trichlorofon for each gallon of water in your tank. The trichlorofon may be harmful to some plants, thus it would be best to get rid of the plants 1st and treat them with potassium permanganate, as described above.

Although leeches don't seem to be everyone's plan of a perfect aquarium pet, they're fascinating creatures in their own right, and some individuals do keep them, sequestered in their own tiny aquarium of course. They are easy to keep and don't demand abundant food: a small piece of meat or an earthworm every week is sometimes enough to stay a leech happy. They're fast to seek out food sources, however, and will answer your finger rubbing along the outside of the tank in addition as to shadows passing overhead. If you keep substrate in your leech tank, the leeches tend to burrow; they're additionally excellent scavengers. Most leeches are freshwater, but as a result of there are marine varieties, be positive you know what kind of water your leech can need.