It feeds on the skin and blood of freshwater fishes in the boreal regions of northern Europe, Asia and North America.

[6] A. peledina differs from leeches in not having a well-developed sucker at its anterior end; instead, it attaches to its host with about forty hooked chaetae (chitinous bristles) borne on its first five segments.

[7] It is in fact unique among Hirudinea in having chaetae at all, and also in having a coelom (body cavity) divided by septa into a discontinuous channel.

[7] Other ways in which it differs from other leeches are that the body is divided into 29 segments, it lacks a prostomium and a peristomium, and the nephridia do not have funnels.

The worms were found just behind the pelvic fins with their anterior ends embedded in the skin and muscle tissue below.