Leeches in water feature?

[_skyla_]

Hi I I've decided to try goldfish in my outdoor water feature again this time only 2 fantails. I got some more plants for it as well. Anyway getting to the point I had my hand in the water moving plants around and removing algae ,pulled it out and had these tiny about half a centimetre leech things stuck to my hand! :0 eeek Im so freaked out! They pulled straight of and I didn't see Any blood drawn on me. Can anyone tell me what they might be and what I should do to remove them? And are they going to attach and hurt my new goldies? Now I'm all paranoid that I'm gonna get some freaky disease from them being on me :/. Oh I remember saving a skink lizard out if the water once and he had them stuck to him by the time I got him out I didn't think much of it then but that would mean they are more than likely to get my goldfish ?

[_skyla_]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums...bums11426.html
Here's some pics of the water feature and our goldies "Ninja and Dragon" named by my 3 year old son

[_skyla_]

Anyone know what I should do?

[jlk]

Can you catch one and get a pic for positive ID? It sounds like leeches (the bad ones). I don't think you want to use your hand as bait again but you can try a piece of raw liver with a string tied onto it or sink a plastic container with liver weighted in it where you can access it easily. Leeches are no fun

[_skyla_]

Originally Posted by jlk

Can you catch one and get a pic for positive ID? It sounds like leeches (the bad ones). I don't think you want to use your hand as bait again but you can try a piece of raw liver with a string tied onto it or sink a plastic container with liver weighted in it where you can access it easily. Leeches are no fun

my hand wasn't the planned bait lol it was sooo gross! Ill try the meat in a container thing and see if I can get a pick but I'm pretty certain their leeches anyway I added aquarium salt and didn't get any latch on to my hand while cleaning it yesterday so I'm hoping that's a good sign. Thanks

[jlk]

I had leeches in my one tank before....the thought of them makes my skin crawl!! They really are a nightmare!!!! I am guessing you have some type of filtration system. Inspect the filter housing and filter media for any eggs. Granted, with a pond, they can lay eggs anywhere. Mine seemed to prefer my filters/media. There are chemical means for treating them as well as natural approaches (leech traps) but they really are tough to get rid of because all you need is single egg to start a new population. And the eggs can basically survive anything (heat, cold, drying, chemicals,etc) and only hatch when conditions are right. That's the bad news. If you can, inspect your fish for leeches, bite marks or missing scales.