Storage conditions for medicinal leeches

  1. The room for storing medical leeches should be in natural light or semi-dark without direct sunlight. Sharp temperature fluctuations are not allowed, as this causes the death of leeches.

  2. Leeches should be kept in wide-necked glass vessels at a rate of no more than 100 individuals in a 3-liter container.

  3. To prevent leeches from spreading, the vessels are covered with a thick cloth napkin and tightly tied with twine or an elastic band, or the container is must be closed by a nylon lid( put previously holes in it, because that the leech does not suffocate).

  4. Medical leeches are stored in a cool place at a temperature of +6 - +16 º C, they can be stored in the refrigerator, but without strong smell of medicine drugs.

  5. Water for keeping leeches should be clean, free of chlorine, peroxide compounds, heavy metal salts, mechanical impurities, and have a room temperature. Water in the container should be changed once every 3-4 days. If the water turns green and the amount of leech waste products increases in hot weather, the water should be changed 1-2 times per day.

  6. Water change:

a) Cover the neck of the container with a mesh and tighten it with an elastic band, turn the container upside down and drain the water;

b) Rinse the mesh with mucus and leech waste products under running water, then pour water into the vessel that has been standing for at least 2 days into the other container to fill it to 1/3 of its volume and drain the water again, thoroughly rinsing the container.

c) after these procedures, settled water is poured in and the vessel is covered with a cloth napkin and tied with an elastic band, or covered with a nylon lid with holes.

d) the settled water when replaced should be the same temperature as the water in the vessel with leeches, because the leeches can get sick and die if you changes the water with different temperature.

  1. To protect leeches from diseases, you need to ensure that there are no dead leeches in the vessel, as well as sick ones that move sluggishly or curl up into a ball, they need to be separated from healthy ones and placed into another container for quarantine, because one sick leech can infect all the other leeches in the vessel - remember this!