Salt

[captmicha]

I still have snail leeches (Glossiphonia sp.) in my cherry shrimp and snail tank and I can't get rid of them. I was wondering if salt (epsom or otherwise) might kill the leeches but leave the snails unharmed?

I'm not getting much of a response any time I post something about this problem. No one else has encountered it?

By the way, there's a bunch of tiny ones crawling all over the sides of the tank. It's impossible for me to squish even the majority of them.

 

[Lycanthropic]

depends on the snials you are keeping. I know some cannot whatsoever tolerate any salt.

 

[captmicha]

Ramshorns (which I'm not very concerned about) and mts, which I'm having a hard time keeping alive and/or increasing their numbers.

 

[Lycanthropic]

Why would you want more MTS? lol. They are such a pest!
so rehome the MTS if you are worried and then dose... but i thought leeches needed to be directly salted... correct me if im wrong. I know some snails will die if directly salted.

 

[bitbot]

To be honest, I've never heard of these, but I would have thought any tank treatment that kills leeches would kill snails as well. It might be possible to remove your snails and shrimp and then treat the tank - not sure what your tank setup is.

edit: Okay, your sig says it's a 5 gallon, and you have a spare 10 gallon...

 

[vampie]

I've used marine salt to wipe out leeches before.. MTS should be fine, they can handle living in saltwater, Ramshorns I've heard do well in low-end brackish, not sure about the shrimp though.

 

[captmicha]

Thanks Vampie! I'm totally going to try that when my ten gallon is ready. I was actually planning on setting it up as a planted tank/Diana Walstad for my shrimp and snails. I'll just move my shrimp in first and then treat the snails in the old tank.

Why would you want more MTS? lol. They are such a pest!

B/c I want them to get into the substrate to prevent as many gas pockets as possible. Everybody complains about what a pest are but I'm having such a hard time with them. Ramshorns are doing just fine for me even when nothing else does. The problem is that I don't want those...

 

[Rockdog]

I have two Glossiphonia or Helobdella snail leeches in a jar, along with a sacrificial Ramshorn. I discovered them inside of a fine-mesh guppy-fry isolation tank after I had removed it for cleaning. The only invertebrate that had been inside of the net tank was an MTS that I had found comatose on top of the gravel, so I'm sure that they were attached to that snail. It was in the net tank for about two weks, and it stayed alive, but it never really perked up. It was the only MTS that I had ever found in the aquarium, and I decided that they were beneficial, so I returned it to the gravel when I pulled the net tank for cleaning. I now realize that the leeches had weakened it all the way to death's doorstep.

As I was rinsing the net tank with tap water, I saw the "moving slime." It was the color and texture of snot, and it moved like an inchworm. I have since found another in the aquarium. Several hours of observation and research using The Internets has convinced me that they're snail leeches, probably Helobdella.

I'm keeeping the two captive leeches alive so that I can figure out a way to kill them without harming my inverts and fish. I think they've already killed a large Red Ramshorn and a big Zebra Nerite since the MTS experience, so I'm motivated.

I think I'll try an experiment with salt. Suggestions welcome.

 

[captmicha]

We have to consider what the snails can tolerate but the leeches can not... Maybe temperature can also play a role in this. Maybe introducing a fish that would prey on the leeches but not the snails? The guppies probably would have done that though...

Anyways, please keep me updated on your experiment! I'd really like to get rid of them. I can always send you more if you need them. Lol. Mine are slightly reddish though.

 

[Rockdog]

Mine look like this:

(not my pics)

Sometimes they're colorless like the first photo (Helobdella), sometimes they have the dotted stripes like the second photo (Helobdella), and sometimes they have the same visible internal stuff as in the third photo (Glossiphonia). Using a hand lens, I can only see two eyes, which would indicate Helobdella (Glossiphonia have six), but they're so small that I could just be missing them.

In any case, I suspect that any treatment that is successful with one genus will be successful with the other.

I want to treat the whole tank, if possible. If necessary, I could temporarily remove the fish and shrimp because they have no part in the lifecycle of these leeches. The rest of the tank, however, is probably full of them.

When I come up with a plan, I'll post it.