Blackworm Hitchhikers

[kush]

I got in an order of blackworms from my LFS today. I rinsed them and poured them into a plastic bin and I've been feeding them to my juveniles throughout the day. As i was putting them away for the night, I noticed twenty-or-so small leeches clinging to the bottom of the container - not planaria; I know the difference. How much trouble am I in? Or is 'leech' just another flavour of fish food?

[jhamil]

I got in an order of blackworms from my LFS today. I rinsed them and poured them into a plastic bin and I've been feeding them to my juveniles throughout the day. As i was putting them away for the night, I noticed twenty-or-so small leeches clinging to the bottom of the container - not planaria; I know the difference. How much trouble am I in? Or is 'leech' just another flavour of fish food?
Well i come from central america and in the rivers leeches attach them selfs to the fish to feed. I would be very carefull.

[Discus-Hans]

I would not be to happy, now this is one of the reasons I don't feed them,

Hans

[phat nguyen]

Hello Kush,
I've been feeding my Discus with live worm for many years without any problem with parasite or disease. There are lots of different opinions about this topic and i truly respect others opinion.
The main thing is to feed/keep the worm alive.
Leech is one of the "stuff" that lives along with live worm and having them should not post any thread to the health of your discus.
You can confirm about this with Mal Davidson. He is a sponsor ( Australian Blackworm ). He is in the business of raising worm for a very long time so he should be able to give you some good advice.
Best wishes,

Perry Nguyen :angel: :angel: :angel:

[MalcolmC]

Hello Kush,
I've been feeding my Discus with live worm for many years without any problem with parasite or disease. There are lots of different opinions about this topic and i truly respect others opinion.
The main thing is to feed/keep the worm alive.
Leech is one of the "stuff" that lives along with live worm and having them should not post any thread to the health of your discus.
You can confirm about this with Mal Davidson. He is a sponsor ( Australian Blackworm ). He is in the business of raising worm for a very long time so he should be able to give you some good advice.
Best wishes,

Perry Nguyen :angel: :angel: :angel:

I can't comment on leeches, because we don't have that problem here, but I must admit I wouldn't be happy if I found them in with my worms.

[Disgirl]

Kush, I have an experience about leeches in aquariums. I bought a used tank, with a couple inches of gravel. When I cleaned it out, the bottom of the tank was filled with eggs of leeches, thousands of them stuck to the glass. It was awful. The leeches had been hiding and breeding in the gravel. A bare bottom tank may not pose such troubles but beware of leeches in a planted and graveled tank!:(
Barb

[nikond70s]

finding lil leaches in bloodworms are common. i have them pretty much all the time when i buy bloodworms. i dont feed them to my discus tho. they normally hang on to the containers or i try to take them out when i see them. so far nothing bad has happened. i accident put one in the tank and the discus tried eating them and they seem very chewy but my corys evetually ate them. if your worry just make sure you dont accidently put them in your tank. you should be fine if you have sand substrate but if you have rocks they can survive. when i switched from rocks to sand i found a few large leeches from the bloodworms..there were about an inch they looked scary.