Can I safely put a Sea hare in a sea horse tank?

[pheinzig]

I would like to have the fallback option of occasionally putting a sea hare into my up and coming sea horse pen to control the algae that is bound to come and go. Good idea/Bad idea?

 

[rayjay]

If you have that kind of algae to need a sea hair then I would suggest that your husbandry protocol is not sufficient and most likely is going to cause bacterial infestations leading to seahorse problems and mortalities.

 

[pheinzig]

Jr. tanks tend to have initial hair algae outbreaks. After things establish, then general good husbandry keeps them to virtually non existent. What I meant to say, was it ok to battle this initial series of outbreaks with a sea hare acceptable?

Im not anticipating having an overall problem with hair alga in the long term, just the initial 3-6 months of the tanks early stages. If I have to wait several months before introducing my first batch of sea horses to the system, I honestly don't mind waiting. Nothing good ever happens fast...

 

[wdt2000]

The seahare will not be a problem. They will not harm the seahorses.

 

[rayjay]

I've got a lot of seahorse tanks and never had a hair algae outbreak on any of them, either at starting up or later on.

 

[pheinzig]

cool. thanks for the help.

 

[wdt2000]

I've got a lot of seahorse tanks and never had a hair algae outbreak on any of them, either at starting up or later on.

There are many ways to run a tank. Just because you don't experience hair algae does not mean the next guy will not. It may or may not have anything to do with "husbandry protocol". I do think it is best to find the source of the HA outbreak, sometimes this is easier said than done and in the mean time the sea hare will help things along.

Sea hares will not harm your seahorses. Even if they die and turn everything nice and purple it has been my experience that it does not harm any fish in the tank.

 

[pledosophy]

I have had many many seahorse tanks with healthy horses and hair algae. Hair algae is not actually bad for your tank, it is a good filter and provides a home for pods, it is just unsightly.

Seahares do well to remove it IME, but I would go with some turbo snails (tropical not temperate).

HTH

 

[pledosophy]

My buddies and I put this together as well if it helps.

http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/tankmates/tankmates.shtml

 

[pheinzig]

just skimmed over it lightly, and it already deserves a bookmark. ty.