Leaches

[dtw]

Do they contribute to the healthiness of the pond?

I seem to have loads in mine.

They don't seem to be harming the fish, it's just that I don't like them attaching themselves to me when I clean out the pond.

Can they be got rid of easily?

[dtw]

[OllieC]

Are you sure they're leaches? There is a little veggie thing that looks a bit like one... Or so I was told once.

I think!

[hellohelenhere]

Ollie, you might be thinking of lampreys? But they live in rivers, not ponds.
Sorry, have no idea what you can do about leeches. Yccchhhhhh!!!

[OllieC]

ewww, yuck! (having done a bit of googling)... no, not them... crikey! Monsters!

On phone to dad in a mo so will ask him. I had them in one of my food "ponds" as a kid (bins for growing food for my tropical fish)...

[OllieC]

I'm thinking of Planarians and I'm wrong... they wouldn't grip to you apparently! I'd love leeches, aren't they quite rare?

[Suzanne]

You get a number of different leeches in ponds - the most common being Erpobdella sp (liver coloured and longish) and Glossiphonia sp (light green colour with darker dots on the back - also broad) these both feed on snails or invertebrates so not a risk to your fish.

Another type Pisicola sp (which if I remember are light green coloured but long with very noticeable sucker bits)do predate on fish. If you get a good freshwater invertebrate book you should be able to tell which types you have. But likely you have a good balance which just reflects a healthy pond.

If you have the medicinal leech (Hirudo sp) I think these are protected now as fairly rare. There are some others that are rare as well but can't remember their names at the moment.

[dtw]

I think they must be Erpobdella, no.8 in this picture.


I looked up the Hirudo and found this beauty.
I certainly wouldn't put my hand in the pond if I knew that was in there.

[Suzanne]

From memory Erpobdella may be No7 - its a long time since I last did an invertebrate sample from a river. Not sure but No8 may be a horse leech - can't remember the latin name.

No 1 is definitely a pisicola - very definite suckers.

[Ishard]

Dishwasher salt (salt with no anticaking additives) gets rid of leaches, and they do indeed stick to fish :(
1/2  imperial ounce per gallon for 1 week then do a partial water change of 10%.

Remove any water plants before adding salt as the salt will usually kill the plants.