Leeches?
Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 1:44 pm
How to get rid of them, specifically.
A couple of months ago, the manager of the store I worked at had ordered several red crayfish. The day after they arrived, the manager mentioned that some were acting sluggish and one had died already. I took a look, observed mass quantities of leeches on the crayfish, and showed the manager, who promptly went to soak her hands and all the nets in steaming hot water (and have a word with the wholesaler over the phone).
The big fish disease book mentioned manual removal and alcohol swabbing, but I was not about to attempt manual removal of over a hundred leeches on each crayfish (not exaggerating, I counted afterwards), so we went with very quick dips and shaking in alcohol, followed by soaking in clean water. It killed all the leeches on the crayfish, we treated that tank with copper, and put the crayfish elsewhere. The crayfish were already in rather bad condition, and only one survived the next two days (it was the healthiest and most active one to begin with, lasted another week and was sold, so I know absolutely nothing about its current condition).
So my first question, is there a better way of removing a leech infestation from crayfish?
(There HAS to be, right? Alcohol dips sounded kinda brutal at the time, but we were out of ideas, and that was a LOT of leeches)
Secondly, what about removing leeches from other invertebrates? A big, otherwise healthy crayfish might be able to tolerate an alcohol dip, but I don't think tiny shrimp will fare well.
A couple of months ago, the manager of the store I worked at had ordered several red crayfish. The day after they arrived, the manager mentioned that some were acting sluggish and one had died already. I took a look, observed mass quantities of leeches on the crayfish, and showed the manager, who promptly went to soak her hands and all the nets in steaming hot water (and have a word with the wholesaler over the phone).
The big fish disease book mentioned manual removal and alcohol swabbing, but I was not about to attempt manual removal of over a hundred leeches on each crayfish (not exaggerating, I counted afterwards), so we went with very quick dips and shaking in alcohol, followed by soaking in clean water. It killed all the leeches on the crayfish, we treated that tank with copper, and put the crayfish elsewhere. The crayfish were already in rather bad condition, and only one survived the next two days (it was the healthiest and most active one to begin with, lasted another week and was sold, so I know absolutely nothing about its current condition).
So my first question, is there a better way of removing a leech infestation from crayfish?
(There HAS to be, right? Alcohol dips sounded kinda brutal at the time, but we were out of ideas, and that was a LOT of leeches)
Secondly, what about removing leeches from other invertebrates? A big, otherwise healthy crayfish might be able to tolerate an alcohol dip, but I don't think tiny shrimp will fare well.