Freshie In Disguise
Aquarium Advice Activist
I live right next door to Leech Lake, in Minnesota. 
Lol.
Leeches are a little bit like some snails. They can survive out of water as long as their skin is wet. In fact, they frequently crawl onto the beaches when the sun goes down. Their eggs can also... What's the word? They can hold off on hatching until conditions are ideal, and then when they do hatch, they SWARM. Alot of them also grow in stages... So they can be tiny enough to miss when looking casually at the aquarium. The adults are the least problematic, because they are easy to spot and some fish eat them. The little ones are the ones to worry about, because they are tricky to spot and more likely to eat at your fish before your fish eats them. Most of the leeches we have around here are around 8" long when swimming, and they do swim like snakes. If they stick to you for too long, they leave a pink mark, but aren't a huge problem. As nasty as they are... You get used to them when you live near Leech Lake. That's what I get for trying to save money by picking my own wild aquatic plants...
For future reference (I hope you won't need it) if you let everything in your tank sit bone dry for a couple of days, you'll kill everything. But it needs to be bone dry. Sprinkling with salt is a good measure too, and will aid in the drying. Plus, you won't need to worry about rinsing chemicals out or throwing stuff away. However... You'll still lose your BB. So sorry you had to go through this!
Lol.Leeches are a little bit like some snails. They can survive out of water as long as their skin is wet. In fact, they frequently crawl onto the beaches when the sun goes down. Their eggs can also... What's the word? They can hold off on hatching until conditions are ideal, and then when they do hatch, they SWARM. Alot of them also grow in stages... So they can be tiny enough to miss when looking casually at the aquarium. The adults are the least problematic, because they are easy to spot and some fish eat them. The little ones are the ones to worry about, because they are tricky to spot and more likely to eat at your fish before your fish eats them. Most of the leeches we have around here are around 8" long when swimming, and they do swim like snakes. If they stick to you for too long, they leave a pink mark, but aren't a huge problem. As nasty as they are... You get used to them when you live near Leech Lake.
That's what I get for trying to save money by picking my own wild aquatic plants...For future reference (I hope you won't need it) if you let everything in your tank sit bone dry for a couple of days, you'll kill everything. But it needs to be bone dry. Sprinkling with salt is a good measure too, and will aid in the drying. Plus, you won't need to worry about rinsing chemicals out or throwing stuff away. However... You'll still lose your BB.
So sorry you had to go through this!
