No luck w sea hares

[jscarlata]

Anyone have tips on sea hares? I've gotten two in the last two weeks and both died in my display. Same symptom, lying gas down I the sand and a round disc, maybe cartilageike, sticking out its back...
I dripped it for acclimation over an hour,
The first one actually went to work and did war some algae over a few days, the recent one didn't make it overnight...

 

[AquaticEngineer]

Any idea what species or where they were collected?

 

[jscarlata]

Not really, it's not the blue one, it's the normal gray looking ones, hard to see against live rock. Spotted, but gray, black, not the blue spotted one.
The first one i drip acclimated over an hour, the second one I used a cup and just poured tank water in slowly over about 40 min. It was moving in the bowl I used cruised around during acclimation. It was dead the next day when I got home...neither made it more than 2 days, the first one I saw eating, the 2nd one not so much. They were both small, 2-3". Maybe the bigger ones are more hardy?

 

[jscarlata]

sea hare pic

sea hare pic

this is a pic that shows the kind of sea hares ive seen for sale locally...

View attachment 237193

 

[Lorna g]

How much algae have u got and what sized tank?

 

[Lorna g]

They like a lot of green haired algae

 

[jscarlata]

My lower rocks are covered in hair algae...I assure you it didn't die of starvation unless it was already starved

My tank is 90g. I do have a
Large established gigantea, not sure if it was stung, it wasn't anywhere near the nem when I found it.

 

[Lorna g]

Could've been starved already what are your nitrates like they don't like high nitrates

 

[jscarlata]

I have so much hair algae growing I can't get a nitrate reading, last few times I tested was at zero.
Since I don't have a lot of coral permanently attached anywhere, I'm gojng to break one rock pile down and clean the rocks and rebuild the reef scape. I need to rearrange some pieces anyway, I just was trying to avoid this. I did it once before to get rid of bubble algae, but it's a lot of work...

 

[drej424]

I've never had success with sea hares. I tried 3 or 4 times and they all died. I just don't buy them any more.

Denise

 

[frbrd84]

I bought one about a week ago for some algae help, acclimated for about a hour has been a going to town on the algae but have noticed mostly active when display lights are out, goes into hiding when they are on.

 

[TY31088]

Liveaquaria shows the care level at expert only. They also state, "It is sensitive to high levels of copper-based medications and will not tolerate bad water conditions (high nitrates)."

 

[timberwolfny]

could any of your fish be bothering it? I had mine for 1 month best clean up crew ever with a sea cucumber. Better than any snails or hermits. So far had no trouble with it but I also run biopellet. what are your tank parameters and how long has it been setup

 

[jscarlata]

Thanks all
It could be my mystery wrasse...no idea
Tank is over 2 years old
Nitrate 2ppm
Phos .02-.04
All params are in line. Never ever used copper medications
Acclimated with a drip as i do with all additions.

I'm not a beginning reefer but I never tried keeping an animal like this. Im spmewhat convinced they both were Doomed before i got them, and was gojng to tey getting a bigger one, but I've moved on...no more sea hares for me...