Hokay, so I just bought a bunch of elodea from my fave lfs, they store it in outside holding tanks,I dumped it into a tank I'm setting up (ie no fish)....

I noticed in the bag after I'd emptied it of weeds that there was this curious looking worm inside. I stuck it in a bowl with some water and watched it.

I'm pretty sure it's a type of leech. it's not a flatworm as it's not shaped like one and doesn't move like one, so it ain't planaria, it had a large sucker on it's hind end, and the body tapers towards the head, it's segmented, and moves inch-worm style, ie head end seeks out where to go, takes hold, then releases hind sucker and draws the rest of the body up towards the head end, rear end sucker goes down and allows the head end to seek the next area to go..... it didn't last long in the tap water, so I'm guessing it's susceptible to chlorine...

I've been searching the net a bit, but I was hoping there might be someone on KGW that might know, what types of leeches are there that one finds in fresh water aquarium, are they all going to attack my fish if I put them in, or are there some that only attack specific types of animals, like gastropods, and if so, do you know any links that show me what they look like?

I just kinda wanna know, whether to treat the tank I put the weeds into before I put my babies in, or whether these worms are beneficial tank fauna..... (ie, will consume pesky snails that come in on weeds)

Cheers in advance...

I don't know what it is, but I would nuke the plants in a separate container with a Potassium Permaganate solution before putting them in your tank. It shouldn't be too hard if they are that sensitive to tap water, and you'll take care of any parasites etc that you can't see.

Hmmm, I have no idea. I am going to move your thread to the tropicals section. Hopefully an expert on them can help you out.

Cool, thanks Laurie... I got some pics of it, I've just gotta resize them then I can post em...

Here's what it looked like, I took quick sequential photos of it to show its movement....







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It was difficult to get any real good focussed shot of it, I'm still learning my way around my camera.....

Here's what it looked like, I took quick sequential photos of it to show its movement....







...

It was difficult to get any real good focussed shot of it, I'm still learning my way around my camera.....

Here is the best close-up image I got of the little squrimer...



you can see a smaller wriggly looking thing coming out from underneath towards the rear of the critter, I'm not sure if it's squirting out progeny or if it's like a male that just kind of hangs in there for the ride.. ??

No one got any ideas? I posted this a while ago, I haven't treated the water (apart from putting straight tap water in, before adding salts dechlor etc) I chucked my new fish in the tank, and no problems with leeches yet.....

I think if there are any left in there that they must be the gastropod eating type, must've starved as I don't have any snails in there...

Still would be interested if there was any info out there that anyone knows about .....