Clumsy Sea Hare

[drew1]

We have a great sea hare! He's been with us for about 2 months and has a great personality. He eats every evening from about 5pm until I would guess a little after midnight, and then buries himself in the sand, sometimes to the point you just can't find him. He does a great job on the algae and has been rotated between two of our aquariums. Well, this evening I noticed a smooth bald spot on his back, probably about 1-1/2" x 1/2" wide. It looks like he may have fallen off the glass (he does this quite often) and scraped his back on the rocks. It looks like it would have hurt, but true to his character he was eating all evening. Has anyone else had hare injuries, not including getting chopped up in powerheads. He has a great personality, but he really is clumsy. Are all sea hares this clumsy?
Drew

 

[Octoberfest]

You know I had a Tiger Sea Cucumber with an injury just like this, eventually found a polyclad flatworm trying to eat him one night. I'm not at all saying this is your issue its just exactly how I described the injury, it was almost like road rash from a bad motorcycle accident.

 

[drew1]

Thanks for the info. Can you tell me more about this flatworm? Size, appearance, how you removed it, etc. I'll research it as well, but personal experience is hard to beat. Thanks, Drew

 

[Octoberfest]

Like I said I don't want you to think that you have one, so please don't think I'm telling you that you do.

Now as far as your questions go. The one I had was about 2.5" wide and 1 to 1.5" wide. It was brown in color with some darker brown spots. They are hard to see when on your live rock and blend in well. They are fast movers for a worm. I saw it one night in a piece of live rock when I was looking at my tank with a flash light, after that the hunt was on. Every night I'd look for it again until one night I foudn it in an upper piece of live rock. I grabbed the rock pulled it from the tank and put it in a bucket with salt water. I used a piece of air tubing and put it in the hole in the live rock and the other end in my mouth. I blowed air into the rock until the worm had enough and came out into the bucket. After that....lets just say since he destroyed about 50% of my trochus snails and my cucumber was obviously not going to make it.....the flat worm is no longer with us.

Do a search on polyclad and you'll find what they look like.

 

[drew1]

Understood. I'm just gathering info just in case. I suspect that it's just a difficult environment for a large sea hare, with all the vertical surfaces and sharp objects. But you never know when something weird is going to suddenly show up in the aquirium. So I wanted to be on the lookout. Size was my main interest - so that I knew to look for a 1/4" worm or a 4" worm. Thanks again for the info.

 

[Octoberfest]

and remember its a flat worm, so it will look like a tiny flounder in a way

 

[greenbean36191]

It's not that sea hares are "clumsy." They've just been put in a completely unnatural environment and they're dealing with things they don't normally deal with. Most species are uses to low-flow lagoonal areas mostly composed of sand, rubble, and sea grass, not high-flow rocky areas.

 

[drew1]

I agree. He is clumsy because of his environment. Clearly he is designed for grazing on grass flats, etc not for climbing glass walls. He currently has plenty of flat surfaces on which to travel and graze but appears to like to ascend the vertical surfaces. Periodically he has to start over after dropping from the wall.

 

[drew1]

I agree. He is clumsy because of his environment. Clearly he is designed for grazing on grass flats, etc not for climbing glass walls. He currently has plenty of flat surfaces on which to travel and graze but appears to like to ascend the vertical surfaces. Periodically he has to start over after dropping from the wall.