#helobdella

Helobdella robusta

A freshwater leech from North America that preys on snails.

Okay leech tank is now set up except for the light for the plants. But it's night time anyways so that can wait until tomorrow.

I'm also going to get them a bunch of little sticks and stuff to climb on until the Wapato sends out more roots for them to climb around on.

In a little scoop of duckweed, I got at least four leeches. Three of which were even smaller than the ones I am taking pictures of, So I don't need to purposefully find any more leeches for it, just some of the snails. And they attach themselves to the camera every time I put it in so that won't be difficult.

I'm not feeling it all the way to the top because I don't want them to climb out by accident. This way if they do climb out... They at least have to put a lot of effort into it.

[Image description start. Three photos taken with flash. Two of them show a fish tank from the top and the side, showing a layer of soil with small rocks over top, a Wapato plant, and some duckweed. The water is slightly cloudy, And there is a gap of a few inches at the top. There is a cross-section of loofah floating in the middle. The third photo shows a tiny tan colored leech sitting on the camera person's thumbnail. Image description end.]

These are apparently an undescribed (aka ~new~) species, so I have no idea how big they will get, especially cuz there's like no information that I know how to find about their genus, Helobdella.

I actually don't even remember which plant the duckweed came in on for me collecting, but I will assume that the leeches came along with that. They're so small, and also I have no idea how they would travel normally, maybe dragonflies are picking them up or something.

^ going hogwild for the nutrients

Found these little weirdos in rainwater on top of a storage tote lid i forgot to dump the water out of.