What the heck is this

Oh My Gosh. Never seen anything like THAT before - wow!

Some sort of scorpion-looking creature from the deep? How big is it?

I'd say it's about a fourth of an inch normally. But when I dislodged it this freak of nature (I don't care if it's benign, it's scary looking) stretched out to almost an inch. It makes my skin crawl. It's destined for a peroxide bath.

Have you looked here? http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/shrimp/40061-whats-bug-how-recognize-them.html

I would say the closest is a planaria maybe... but that's one scary looking planaria. It's like it evolved a skeleton right there in your tank... you could be famous

nooo dont kill it its the missing link in evoloution!!!!!! haha well mabey not but its one sweet looking creature.

make a 2.5g all for it and grow it out. They will make a movie after you.

it looks like some type of Nematode.....

Can you imagine? There is nothing I want less than a 2 foot long planaria with a spine and trying to grow legs.
It's chilling in a vase right now, if someone wants to adopt it, I'll glady send it to you, I'll even pay for it.

Ryzilla said:

make a 2.5g all for it and grow it out. They will make a movie after you.

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...yeah...a movie called Alien.

I remember there was a thread with this very same creature thing somebody found. As much as I would like to adopt it, I don't think my mom would approve.

I was the other person who found a similar looking "bug." It's an australian leech, yes, leech and the white lines you see in it are the live young it is carrying. The ones in my tank were more pinkish, and much larger, but the same basic principle.

You can find the post somewhere in my past topics, but I'm sure all the images I took of it are long gone by now.

P.S - Have you in the past received plants from aquariumplants.com? That's where I got my leech from along with many other nasty critters.

nicksgirl7705 said:

P.S - Have you in the past received plants from aquariumplants.com? That's where I got my leech from along with many other nasty critters.

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I know I'm never ordering from them. I don't want a leech in my tank.

OMFG.
So, those "young", please tell me that I caught it before it could release it's lovely little puppies in my tank. Please tell me that I won't be finding more leeches in there. Please tell me they reproduce asexually and it doesn't have a boyfriend in there some where.
I haven't gotten anything from aquariumplants, but I have had shipments of stuff from overseas.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/general-planted-tank-discussion/31112-leech-looking-thing.html

That's my thread. My horror-filled description seems pretty similar to yours.

I found smaller ones around my tank once I finally got the nerves to pull out a big one with young and give it a salt bath. The "mother" leech cares for and feeds the young, even the free "swimming" juveniles. Once you kill the adults in the tank, the young will die off also. The small amount of juveniles I saw quickly disappeared.

Mommy leech is going to get a salt bath in the sun tomorrow. Gah... that is just disgusting. You haven't seen any more since then have you? I'd hate to break down the tank, and that would mean I'd actually have to put my hands in there. :thumbsdow

Edit: Man, I don't think I can sleep tonight I am so grossed out. Where is the barf smiley...

Eventually tore down the whole tank and started over. I lost a lot of money, but I couldn't do work on the tank such as changing water, etc. anymore.

The big one, before I killed it, had the tendancy to hide underneath the "lip" of the aquarium, and whenever I changed the water and emersed it, it would crawl up ontop of the lip. Then it would rear up a little bit and move it's head in circles like it was trying to grab onto something. Horrifying.

I saw a thread once with pictures of huge planaria-like worm things stuck to the side of the tank, looking like a bunch of pale colored tootsie-rolls. I didn't think I'd see worse than that, but I think a young-carrying leech(es) in a tank beats that out. Congrats on the most disgusting tank critter evah!

that is just freaky looking....

Screw the salt bath...I can tell you for sure that I would have netted that thing, put it on the floor and gave it some size SIZE 11 Lovin.:biggrin:

i would have opted for a bleech bath myself