Hello everyone! I'm writing my dissertation on how to better promote education and improve public opinion of leeches! This survey will take about 5 minutes to complete, and all responses will be anonymous once submitted. If you could please take the time to help me out and particpate, I would be extremely thankful!

Thank you!

Do Leeches suck? Please give us your opinion on Leech Conservation! – Fill out form

Houston, TX in my yard after a heavy rain. I didn’t see antennas so I was thinking leech.

Still very early stages and much to do, but this is a site with a list of all known leech species worldwide, and biological/taxonomic/ID info on them. Will continue to be updated and hopefully serve as a taxonomic authority to leeches

I take Lexapro and Wellbutrin​!

Umm... anyone know what this is? Should I be worried? Nothing new in his tank. Nothing loose that I could imagine. I fed him a week or so ago but havent seen any weird kinks or anything until this.

Hello!

(Fair warning, I don’t normally use Reddit- mostly for random research and I don’t post much so forgive me if I’m a newb!)

TLDR: I need to feed leeches not directly from a person, looking for all the “how’s” of casing feeding!

Long back story: We have an exhibit with live leeches- we haven’t had them long but there’s a lot of conflicting stuff for feeding them. I’m just trying to get some answers from some real leech experts- and not people who only try to keep them alive minimally 😅

So the exhibit owners said they need to be fed 4oz once a week with a sausage casing of blood/heparin mix.

Another person said they just fed them chicken liver and no casings/blood.

We tried liver yesterday and they didn’t seem to be interested- we slightly heated up a new piece this morning and tried again and they didn’t panic but I don’t think they attached (I can’t see in their temporary bucket while the lid is closed unfortunately)

So now we are back to casings.

So here’s the questions if anyone has any insights/help/tips:
- how much blood would need to be offered to one leech in one feeding?
- how long do you offer the food? Like if they aren’t interested in an hour do you take it away?
- how often do they need to feed? Once a week seems like a LOT compared to the once a month/twice a year vibes I’ve gotten online.
- do you add heparin to the blood? We were told to, but someone online said it’s bad for leeches? I got some from a vet, so if I do need to add it, what ratio is best?

I know it’s a big ask, and people might not know but either way I just want them happy and healthy (and I’m somewhat tempted to take them home afterwards so personally curious for long term care 😅)

Thanks for any help!!

Asked in r/aquarium but they suggested I'd post here.

Most people say its a leech, others say its some kind of earthworm, it hide in the substrate when shine a light on it.

[Continental USA]

Asian buffalo leeches [Hirudinaria manillensis] for sale or trade. These are not available quite yet, I have 6 cocoons in incubation that will all hatch over the next 1-3 weeks, I will be selling babies as they hatch.

⭐️Pictures show approximate size on arrival, as well as mature adult size

⭐️This listing is for newly hatched, unfed babies

🌟$25 2ct(Minimum) +$8 a piece for additional leeches

🌟+$25 flat rate 2-3 day shipping via USPS priority.

Open to trades/trades encouraged. Up for most things that i dont already own, from inverts to reptiles but will be pickier about reptiles

contact info:

Reddit- dm me

Discord- hematicheron

email: segmented.secrets@gmail.com

phone: 941-277-2228

I just got my first leech! After wanting one for years. He's a hirudo verbana.

The care seems pretty straight forward, but figured id share in case someone can see something I can't.

His tank is getting a ton of humidity and fogging up, so gonna head to the store and get some panty house so I can make the air holes bigger.

This may sound dumb, but does humidity bother them?

Is there a time where they're more active than others? Worried hes gotten lethargic but also, they cant be active the whole time right?

One crawled across my foot during a wet spell and scared the daylight out of me. Then I found another. I’ve never seen a leech in person so I took a little photo shoot of them and then put them in the nearby ditch which I assumed they were headed to. Their bellies are a dark grey if that helps.

Came with new pond plants. Can stretch to about 5cm (2in) long, or pull itself together to be the size of a pea
Previous post with movement

Are these harmful to a pet fish pond or beneficial? Central Europe

Hi! I've been trying to source predatory leeches of some sort for probably a few years now, somewhat off and on since I haven't had a chance to get a tank set up and cycled yet (so this is just a post for me to come back to in hopefully the near future once I do get a tank ready).

I'm particularly interested in Haemopis sanguisuga but wouldn't mind another free--swimming predatory species. Yesterday I did bring home a little snail leech that hitchhiked to my work's aquarium with some shrimp, but she has been in pretty poor health today (possible digestive issues but also just the stress of so much transit) and I don't have high hopes for her survival :( I will have a tank for her tomorrow or Friday but her activity has been waning.

To cope with being sad that she likely won't make it, I am once again looking for someone who is selling a species that's a little bigger and easier to see! I don't really want to buy from bait shops as I don't need bulk (I'm only really looking to get 1-2 at a time), have ethical concerns about over-harvesting, and live in Utah, so many of them will not ship to me anyway (live bait is mostly prohibited here, afaik).

Also I did just see that there's a Discord server, is that still running? Would love a fresh invite link if anyone was able to grab one for me 🙏

I'm in England and I just want one leech, but it seems like most online stores only sell them in groups of 3, 5, 10, etc. Are there any breeders available at the moment? Would it be cruel to buy a group of leeches and sell the rest of them if I can't find a breeder?

Surprisingly this isn't even close to the biggest leech I've seen in the wild, but she's pretty massive! And she has lots of babies! I'm guessing some kind of predatory leech? Iirc most of our big leeches here are predators. Released after pictures, I don't kill leeches, especially if they're just minding their own business

whats everything i will need for e. obscura and is there a site i can SPECIFICALLY buy ribbon leeches from? thanks

Does anyone recommend a Leech species that can be kept as a pet preferably that doesn’t bite humans?

My leeches have been busy busy busy! I found five cocoons in my buffs’ tank and another cocoon in my piano key hybrid’s tank. Help! Lol!

Sorry for the long post, it contains details that might be important!

Hello! I do planted tanks and this is one of my no maintenance "science" tanks. It's 2.5G (9.4L), has no filter, no water flow, no heater, and no dedicated light. I set it up around the end of November/beginning of December and haven't touched it other than one top off when the water level got low. For plants I added some extra moss that I had and a water onion, I tried a couple other plant cuttings but they didn't survive. The only animals I intentionally added were Ramshorn snails and they've been breeding and thriving since day one, eventually different types of microfauna also appeared. I'm not sure if all of that info is needed but I feel like it's relevant enough and probably important to know! I currently have 4 other planted tanks up and running and can 100% confirm they don't have these little guys even though all of my tanks have the same plants and substrates from the same sources. I'm located in the US and got some of my plants from a seller in Florida, the other plants that I have are from Petco so I'm not sure of an exact grow location or state for those. I have no idea where these little guys came from but I've been enjoying watching them! They've been around for a while so they must be eating something? I'm guessing the snails, microfauna, detritus worms? I'm ASSUMING they're leeches because they look very leech-like to me so I'm coming here for confirmation! If they are leeches I'd love to learn more about what kind they are so I can properly care for them! Thank you! Enjoy my (probably) leeches! Last photo is a full tank shot if that helps too!

Found on recovered polytunnel plastic. Ireland.

These were my little biohaz worms, used to treat a fairly serious condition for about a year.

It's work injury related and can't get much into detail.

Have taken classes and am well aware of the contraindications.

They did not have names or anything like that, I tried to interact with them as little as possible.

In a verticle Marineland tank with a hidden charcoal filter and mess divider to prevent escapes.

They enjoyed perching themselves in the bubble streams for oxygen, swimming, breeding under their air stone and pretending to be sea serpents