Leeches In My Tank!

[solsed]

Hey, so I have the weirdest thing..

I'm pretty sure there are leeches in my tank!

They are about a centimetre long, spoon shaped, ivory coloured, semi transparent with black internal organs of some sort. They 'feel' with the thin, long end of the 'spoon', touch down with it somewhere, and then pull the rest of their body toward that.

So yea, I'm thinking they're leeches.

I can also see heaps of dark brown specks all over the glass, which I've never seen before, I'm wondering if they're eggs?

Thankfully, there are no fish in it currently, just a few dozen pest snails (that I don't mind loosing, they eat all my plants anyway).. My (very old) beta died a couple of months ago and I was keeping it set up and cycled, in case I wanted a fish again.. I hadn't properly looked in there in a while (still greiving a bit)... And I was quite startled to see them!

It's a 20L heatered, (HOB) filtered tank with plenty of live plants (mostly Anubias and Anacharis, tiny bit of Rotala Indica), rock substrate and a (real) rock decoration.
 
No idea how they got in there, I last bought some plants from the pet store a few monts ago when my beta was still swimming... That's the latest addition to the tank. Maybe he was eating the babies and keeping the population in check, so I didn't see them before now?

Anyway, my question is this; Is there any way to remove them while preserving the bacterial colony of the tank, or will I have to start anew (which I really don't want to do.. Australia doesn't sell pure ammonia for fear of terrorism)?

If I do have to start over, how shall I best treat everything? I ask because a bit of reading on the matter told me that the eggs are damn near impossible to kill with heat, chemicals, or salt.

Can my plants be saved?

I love this community, and I hope someone here has dealt with something similar before..

 

[Corey90]

If they are leeches then for a lot of fish they would be on their diet.  I'm not sure they are though as I have never heard of a clear leech before.  You can try cranking up the temp in your tank though.  This may kill of the critters and your plants should pull through.  Worth a shot but no guarantee that it would work.  Do you have any pictures of them?  

 

[Ninjouzata]

Can't help with the leeches, that is odd..
But did want to mention that there is ammonia you can use, I believe it's called cloudy ammonia?

 

[tunagirll]

I'm in Australia and have clear ammonia for cycling; in Perth - send me your address if you like and I'll send you some

 

[BelldandyShanny]

did you check the hitch hikers thread?

 

[solsed]

I was under the impression that cloudy ammonia had other chemicals within it, and thus was unsuitable for fish tanks... Are you sure it's ok?

And thank you so much Tunagirll, I've PMed you.

BelldandyShanny, I can't find that thread, even with a search...I'm so sorry, but may you post a link?

 

[BelldandyShanny]

it's like the second pinned post on the "tropical discussions" section

 

[solsed]

Found it! They did have a section on leeches, but the link provided no useful into with regards to erradicating them (it wasn't aquarium-focussed at all).

 

[CrimsonBoli]

Fish should eat them... My Clown Loaches nearly killed each other while fighting over who gets 2 it first...
 
I don't think they are harmful but they are freaky! 

 

[BelldandyShanny]

well I more meant to identify that it was actually a leach, they do at least have pictures up, but the planaria wormy things do look like tiny white leaches to me, in either case yucky and I hope you get rid of it