In the Filters

I found a leech in our filter system today.

Which is like...the second...or maybe the third? Time we've found a leech in the system.

The last one I remember is when a coworker discovered one hanging out on one of our aquatic turtles. Not sure if we had one before that point. And that was like...maybe a year or so ago??

In any case.
This morning when I was switching out the filter pads in the back, I noticed as I was placing a new pad in that there was this thick streak of brown -that at first I thought was just like...food waste. But a closer glance told me it may be something different.
Something alive.

So I poked it.

Sure enough. It had the feel of something alive. 

So I grabbed a pair of tongs as I was already kinda thinking it may be a leech of some sort.

And getting a cup of water, urged the thing into the cup so I could see it better.

Yep.
Definitely a freshwater leech. 

Not quite sure how it got into our tanks.
Or how long it's be hanging around....

Like it could be as recently as under 24 hours as I did get in a turtle yesterday and the last time we saw a leech was with our turtles....
But it could have been in our system far longer too...it's hard to know.

Sucker is a bigger one though. Like a good two inches, nearly 3 inches maybe when it's stretched out. 

I ended up taking it home with me. Mostly because my Daddoo wants to keep it as a pet. So I bought the leech a temporary home and placed some aquatic snails in there for it to munch on...and we'll see if it survives long enough for me to take it up to him. 

But yah.
That was a cool different discovery for the day.

-Sarnic Dirchi