Anyone on here keep leeches?

Poonjab

Poonjab

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I actually used to. When I was much younger. Would catch them from the creek behind my house.
 
basin79

basin79

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Follow a woman on Insta who keeps them and feeds them. Extremely interesting. And of course there are predatory leeches.
 
Poonjab

Poonjab

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basin79 said:
Her own blood.
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Gotcha. When I could catch them an keep them. I’d catch medium sized trash fish and put them in the 20gal tank. They would feed off the fish. Kinda messed up thinking back on it. However that’s whAt they do in the wild.
 
The wolf

The wolf

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i’ve kept a few native leeches, i’m from the uk tho so the bloodsuckers (Hirudo medicinalis) are very rare. unfortunately as a young child i got my hand on a few Haemopis sanguisuga which i promptly managed to kill from my clueless husbandry, something i remain very guilty about. more recently i found a handful of another small predatory native species which i fail to remember the name of, which quickly bred to form a small colony that i eventually released, one of my favourite invertebrates i’ve ever kept i cannot deny, i highly highly recommend, attached is an image of one
 

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schmiggle

schmiggle

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basin79 said:
And of course there are predatory leeches.
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DomGom TheFather said:
I've seen videos of people filling sausage casings with pigs blood.
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Was gonna mention both of these. Sausage casings apparently work better if microwaved, but also apparently a live human is even better lol. In the US, we've got some pretty neat predatory leeches. Erpobdella is very common, but there are also some massive subterranean ones that eat earthworms. One species from the NJ pine barrens reaches about a foot in length, but after searching for two years in the habitat scientists only had a dozen or so specimens, so it's not easy to find. The Bornean giant red leeches are also really cool, though of course impossible to source.
 
A

Arthroverts

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schmiggle said:
The Bornean giant red leeches are also really cool, though of course impossible to source.
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Impossible?
I have an importer of Bornean aquatic inverts watching out for leeches for me, with any luck his contacts in Borneo may be able to find a few...

Anyways, leeches are fascinating creatures. The sausage casings with pig blood is perfectly viable method for feeding them, and considering just how amazing they look I figure for those brave enough feeding them your own blood isn't too big of a deal. Then again, for those mildly allergic to them, walking around with bruises on your arms and legs from feeding can't be too fun.

"How'd you get those bruises?"
"Oh, uh...would you believe it if I said I was feeding my leeches?"

Thanks,

Arthroverts
 
schmiggle

schmiggle

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Arthroverts said:
Impossible?
I have an importer of Bornean aquatic inverts watching out for leeches for me, with any luck his contacts in Borneo may be able to find a few...

Anyways, leeches are fascinating creatures. The sausage casings with pig blood is perfectly viable method for feeding them, and considering just how amazing they look I figure for those brave enough feeding them your own blood isn't too big of a deal. Then again, for those mildly allergic to them, walking around with bruises on your arms and legs from feeding can't be too fun.

"How'd you get those bruises?"
"Oh, uh...would you believe it if I said I was feeding my leeches?"

Thanks,

Arthroverts
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You're right, extremely difficult. These aren't aquatic, though--they're subterranean terrestrial inverts.

I swear to God, though, you're importing all the animals I want!
 
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