Help save Sea Hare!

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Newreeflady

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I got a sea hare shipped to me. It appeared healthy in the bag, and the first day it explored the tank and ate some hair algae... unfortunately, it seems to be taking a turn for the worst.

What can I do, I have removed it to a small tupperware to try to feed, but I think i'm going to put it in my sump. Can I feed anything to it? Why won't it eat anymore, it did eat some?

Any suggestions?

-A
 
Ok, well, it appears to have released some purple ink after I moved it to the tupperware and tried to give it lettuce.

I have now transferred it to an isolation bucket with a rock (that has some algae), some lettuce, and an airstone.

Looks bad, i'm thinking it's about to die.
:(
Angela
 
Hi graveyardworm,

The hare was acclimated over the course of about 1.5 hours by addition to the bag of a small amt of water every 15/20 mins. It seemed to do great right away. Basically mowed my back wall one strip clean. And, downhill from there:(

I decided to freeze him, I know, cruel. I think i've got a hard time watching creatures suffer. I don't think it was going to make it. I had it in a bucket, and it released ink, and wasn't attaching anymore. I hope that I wasn't wrong.

This is sad, because I know people have had success with these guys, and it is so unfortunate that I had to watch it suffer. I have always loved nudis and slugs, so this is a bad day indeed. :(

-Angela
 
Hi David,

Can you think of anything that might have gone wrong here? Did it somehow get sick from the algae? I just still don't understand what happened. :(

-A
 
Did you test the parameters of the acclimation bag water prior to adding it to your tank? Was the SG, and PH the same. Other than that it may have been sick from the start, and would not have survived regardless.

Sometimes it takes alittle while for a problem to manifest itself. Which is why using a QT is a good idea.
 
What kind of sea hare was it? Where did you order it from? Did it eat at all? What did it eat, if so?
 
Hi, I didn't test the bag water.

I ordered it from Drs. F&S.

I'm not sure what type of Sea Hare it was, other than it is the one that they offer on the site.

All other animals they sent me (a carpet anemone, gorgonian, and a dwarf fan worm) all are doing great.

It did eat, but only the first day. I wonder if the flow was too much, or maybe it really was sick but I didn't know? It truly looked great in the bag, looked great when I first put it in, so this was really unexpected. :(

Thanks for helping me figure this out!
-Angela
 
What sort of algae was the sea hare eating when it did eat? It never touched the lettuce, correct? Sorry that I missed you saying it ate a strip of algae, I skimmed quickly. Was the water very cold when you received the package? I think your acclimation was probably OK. I suspect shipping stress prior starvation are involved. I know it is a little late now but I am just curious what might have happened. Could it have been sucked up against a pump intake? These guys are often injured / killed by pump intakes in aquaria.

For future reference, putting it in a bucket probably would only stress the animal more as ammonia can build up quickly from such a large invert.

Kevin
 
kmk,

The algae was green hair algae. It is plentiful in my tank. There probably was a bit of cyano on it, I have a small cyano problem, not major, but a little here or there on the green hair algae. (odd, because there is a lot of flow, but not odd because i've not had a decent skimmer on the tank ever.)

I would guess the water was cold, but I didn't really feel it. I actually received two shipments that day, both overnighted, the earlier was from Clams direct and the water was very cold! I don't recall if this one was cold, though (but again, i'd guess that is the case.)

There are no pumps in my tank. I have a CL and an overflow, but nothing with any type of siphon feeling right up against it (due to my keeping an anemone.)

I agree, the bucket was more stress. But, the animal was on it's way out, and I can't risk that kind of stress on my 45g system, especially as I have other new inhabitants that i'd like to keep stress-free as they are doing well right now, but have only been in a week so any real stressors could send them downhill.

I also want to figure this out. Does it sound possible it would have eaten anything had things gone wrong prior to shipment? I would think if it was the shipping, it wouldn't have eaten at all, but i'm not a marine biologist so I can't really make assumptions i'd suppose.

Thanks!
Angela
 
The problem with killing it, it may have been able to pull through. I have seen many things that I would have bet were dead/dying. A couple days later they looked fine. Don't be so quick to kill, invertebrates have an amazing ability to heal.
 
I purchased the same thing, I think. It was a sea hare nudibranch(sp). It did great in my tank for the first couple days and as time went on he got smaller and moved less and less. I found out later that he only eats hair algae. So I stuck him in my fug, where I had like 2 very small patches and I think it was too late. I did the exact same thing as you and threw him outside where it was 0 degrees and 4" of snow on the ground. I hated seeing him suffer. I like the little guy too. :(
 
Why do people thing freezing to death is not suffering????? I live in Michigan, and if you threw me outside naked right now with it being 9 degrees, I would suffer for a long time till i died of exposure and for our saltwater friends, suffocation.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9189156#post9189156 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cchoffman
Why do people thing freezing to death is not suffering????? I live in Michigan, and if you threw me outside naked right now with it being 9 degrees, I would suffer for a long time till i died of exposure and for our saltwater friends, suffocation.
Click to expand...

Do you know of a less traumatic way to euthenize tank critters. If so please describe.
 
Killing something is never non traumatic, for you or them. These may sound bad for you, but if you are worried about them, quicker deaths would be crushing them, cutting off their heads, drop them in a bucket of bleach.

Killing is always a messy business. If you can't do any of those, just drop them in the garbage, suffocation alone would be better then suffocation and freezing.
 
You're assuming that their nervous system works the same way as ours, which it doesn't. I don't think there is a whole lot of evidence to suggest that freezing would be a "painful" way for these animals to go. Also, suffocation would likely be a much slower death than freezing since lots of inverts, including sea hares can stand short (30 min to a few hours) periods of exposure without problems.

With freezing, the idea is that their neural function slows down along with the rest of their metabolism, so they're unconcious within a very short time, and have a painless death. Many lab guidelines list freezing as one of the acceptable methods for euthanizing fish and "lower" animals.
 
These critters have such a low body mass that they freeze rather quickly. Dont forget they're cold blooded as well so as greenbean stated they react far differently and much quicker to cold than warm blooded animals do.

Plus didnt you ever listen to Nirvana " Its okay to eat fish cause they dont have any feelings "
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9187179#post9187179 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LPFSTheFett
I purchased the same thing, I think. It was a sea hare nudibranch(sp). It did great in my tank for the first couple days and as time went on he got smaller and moved less and less. I found out later that he only eats hair algae. So I stuck him in my fug, where I had like 2 very small patches and I think it was too late. I did the exact same thing as you and threw him outside where it was 0 degrees and 4" of snow on the ground. I hated seeing him suffer. I like the little guy too. :(
Click to expand...

This is exactly what happened, he shrunk then stopped moving and stopped attaching to things. I don't have snow on the ground, so it went in a small bit of water into the freezer. So sad, I know it was dying, I can't let it do that in my tank as it comprimises my other critters that are in good health. You get yours online, too? Maybe we should notify Drs. F&S that these aren't good reef aquaria creatures (maybe whatever ones they are collecting are not hardy, or aren't the common hare that people are getting that are working out.) I did have hair algae, but mine still went through the same as yours.

Best,
-A
 
I got mine from Jacks Aquarium and Pets. It's my experience that they are aware that a lot of the items they sell, they know are not good in most tanks. They put it on the consumer to research what the animals need instead of offering the information at the store.

I just am impatient, but I know from now on to ask questions and do my research first.

Jason
 
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