Manual worm removal

[reefmusic]

This morning I managed to manually remove two "worms" I had observed on my little leatherjacket. He was easy to catch, so I laid him flat in a shallow saucer of tank water and use needlenose pliers to remove the two of them. Hope it wasn't too traumatic for him.

I tried to take a photo in the shallow water of the "worms".

They look and behave like leeches (except I did not know a saltwater version existed). They sucked onto the bottom of the saucer and wriggled in the current.

 

[griss]

@leebca @Dr. Reef @HumbleFish

 

[kharmaguru]

Looks to be doing a faceplant like a lamprey.

 

[reefmusic]

Looks to be doing a faceplant like a lamprey.

Certainly has a sucker on the end, that attaches to the fish (or the saucer).

 

[reefmusic]

Follow up, he (the leatherjacket) came out for a feed of flake food just an hour or two after the trauma, so I think he's happy.

 

[HumbleFish]

Unfortunately, the best treatment for marine leeches is using an organophosphate (which is highly toxic.)

 

[reefmusic]

Unfortunately, the best treatment for marine leeches is using an organophosphate (which is highly toxic.)

Looks like I will stick to my manual method then. He was a recent addition from the wild, so he would have had the two leeches on him when I caught him. I will just observe now, but chances are there are no more leeches in the tank (or on him).