OT can anyone confirm for me what his is

[ginnie5]

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290566303
I think its a leech. Question is HOW did it end up in my tank?????

[farm41]

Do you get live worms, or any other live food at the lfs?

I see flatworms in the blackworms once in a while. Don't know if they are leaches though.

[Randall]

Dear Ginnie,

Thank you so much for sharing that lovely image with us :roll: .

It looks like a flatworm to me that may have sneeked in with some live food. Like Matt says, they can enter your aquarium through blackworms.

Some time ago, I was siphoning one of my breeding tanks and unearthed a mondo worm thingy that could have devoured the US eastern seaboard. It must have entered the tank when very small with the blackworms I was feeding.

Rather than calling in the Animal Control people to report potentially lethal fauna, I used a pair of extended tweezers to nab the Alien and deposit it in a recepticle containing salt. What was capable of taking down a bull elephant in heat shriveled down to about an inch.

The moral of the story is:

Some worms just ain't worth their salt.

Randall Kohn

[tjudy]

That definitely looks more like a leach than a flatworm. The worms that come in blackworms are usually leaches, but not parasitic ones. Most leaches are not parasites. Flatworms, like planaria, that we see in aquariums are usually much smaller. I will try to get some pics of some at school tomorrow.. I keep a tank full. Cool little dudes....

[ginnie5]

only frozen. Wherever it came from it is now gone. A bowl of alcohol took care of it nicely. I'll definitley be taking a long look at the tank before I stick my hands back in there!

[apistodave]

tjude dude hit it-- planaria look like leeches but are less than 3/8 inches long and sometimes can have a whitish appearance, your fish will eat them, these things are the same as flatworms, they ususally get around by clinging to stufff and crawling along like a snail.
Leeches are a whole new ballgame they are usually much larger 3/4 and bigger. These guys you will see swimming around like a snake. Your internal alarm will really start clanging if you see them, kind of the same reaction to a rattle snake buzz. You can tie flies with marabou to imitate them and catch nice bass and trout, unfortunately your fish are too small to eat them

[tjudy]

:) Do you tie Dave? I have a pretty good leach pattern using rabbit strips and marabou... killer on the San Juan.