Leeches in Pond
- Thread starter Jesto
- Start date
Try and add salt !
I'm not too sure like but salt seems to be the best line of defence against most problems!
I'm not too sure like but salt seems to be the best line of defence against most problems!
I had them show up in a small diano breeding pond, they were around three quarter inches long, I put a 6" wide band of table salt around it and treated the water as for ick, the leeches crawled out and shriveled up on the salt border, it also stopped slugs from getting to my water hyacinth. Some leeches are more salt tolerant than others and some fish are sensitive to it. There are a couple products available to kill the leeches but they kill all the inverts so I have never used them. What kind of fish and pond do you keep?
The meds for pond treatment of leeches are mainly malathion which is an organophosphate long term poison and very dangerous (I strongly Recomend you do NOT use this), potassium permanganate solution, and 2 commercial products that I see recomended but have never used, Ludex anti-leech, and Anchors Away, I don't really know anything about them.
Potassium permanganate is the old anti-fluke standby and is sold in pharmacies, some garden shops,, and lfs. I takes four days to treat your pond. A lot of koi supply houses carry it. the way you use it reguires that you accurately measure how much water you have and it is better to under dose than overdose or it can burn the gills of you fish. At treatment doses it will kill all your inverts but you will no longer have fish lice, flukes, or leeches. I did a quick check and you can get a 1 pound jar for $14.50 at www.fancykoiqutlet.com which will last a long time.
To use you turn off your filter and add one level TEASPOON of granules per 1000 gallons of water to your pond, dissolve it in a bucket with some water first, then stir it around, your pond will turn blue or purple then over the next couple hours turn amber or brown, once it does add 1 pint of 3% hydrogen peroxide to the pond. Stir it around and wait 3-4 hours then turn the pumps back on.
Repeat this everyday for four to five days, each day it will take longer for the blue to go away. Make sure you neutralize the potassium permanganate each day. after the last treatment do a 30-50% water change.
I helped do this with a couple koi ponds back in the mid 80's for flukes and planaria. the koi were fine.
Potassium permanganate is the old anti-fluke standby and is sold in pharmacies, some garden shops,, and lfs. I takes four days to treat your pond. A lot of koi supply houses carry it. the way you use it reguires that you accurately measure how much water you have and it is better to under dose than overdose or it can burn the gills of you fish. At treatment doses it will kill all your inverts but you will no longer have fish lice, flukes, or leeches. I did a quick check and you can get a 1 pound jar for $14.50 at www.fancykoiqutlet.com which will last a long time.
To use you turn off your filter and add one level TEASPOON of granules per 1000 gallons of water to your pond, dissolve it in a bucket with some water first, then stir it around, your pond will turn blue or purple then over the next couple hours turn amber or brown, once it does add 1 pint of 3% hydrogen peroxide to the pond. Stir it around and wait 3-4 hours then turn the pumps back on.
Repeat this everyday for four to five days, each day it will take longer for the blue to go away. Make sure you neutralize the potassium permanganate each day. after the last treatment do a 30-50% water change.
I helped do this with a couple koi ponds back in the mid 80's for flukes and planaria. the koi were fine.
On adding the hydrogen peroxide to neutralize the P.permanganate it should read 1 pint per 1000 gallons.
