Help! I fouind a slug/leech

[dwoon]

Hi Everyone,

Need some advise on the above topic. I just started a tank about 1 week now. I've put in some moss and plants, togther with my shrimps and tetras.

Just yesterday, I saw a very small slug/leech squirming around in the taiwan mini. Its about 3mm in length and whitish in colour.

How do I get rid of it. Its too small and when I tried reaching for it, it went into the moss for cover. When there's one, chances are there're more.

Would it harm the fish or shrimps?

Thanks.

[rocketshrimp]

probably planaria

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ighlight=slugs

Harmless...cut down on feeding...introduce some fishes...think barbs did the trick for someone..

[vinz]

Barbs did the trick for me. 25 starving tiger barbs in a 6'x2'x2' tank. The planaria were gone practically overnight, but I've read that fishes don't usually eat them (taste yucky) and fish won't even touch food that planaria have touched. So, I'm not quite sure if they really ate them, or it was competition for food (barbs snapped up the scraps from my arowana feeding). I never acutally saw the barbs eat the planaria.

Possible for planaria to die from 2 to 3 days of starvation?

Anyway... if it is planaria, they come about due to left over food... especially meaty stuff like shrimp(arowana) and meat (discus). But that does not seem to the case in your tank.

Planaria don't swim, they crawl, or float on the water surface. When distubed in midwater, they curl into a ball (sort of) and sink. On glass or hard surfaces, they cling on for dear life if you try to dislodge them.

Your tank should not be favorable breeding gorund for them, so maybe a trap maybe better the intorducing fishes that you might not want once they do the job.

[dwoon]

Thanks for the link. Looks like they're carniverous and not harmless as claimed.

Anyone has any idea where to get medicine to kill them off before they infest the whole tank? My tetras would definitely not be able to eat it even if it tried. Their mouths are just too small.

[|squee|]

For me, I've only encountered one or two, and I'm not sure it's planaria. I squeezed them flat.