sea hair/ pepermint shrimp bad mix??

[ludiNano]

My LFS just sold me a sea hair when i was talkin about my hair algea.


When i put added it to the tank after 1 1/2 hour acclimation. My pepermint shrimp was climbing on it and what not and the sea hair started spewing INK, which i didn't know it did.

I called the LFS the said to do a change and try to get as much purple ink out as i could. and said the sea hair would get used to my tank. And to try and keep the pepermint shrimp away from the sea hair....Like i can sit there all day and do that.

I fed the pepermint w/ a piece of krill and it seems to be occupied at the moment but-

Will this contiue?

Does this always happen when there together?

Will my hermit crabs bother it?

How harmful is the Ink?

I have NO other mobile inverts too.

 

[jblincoe]

i have never owned a sea hare, however i have to think that the ink is not good, if i were you i would skim wetter and do a fairly large water change, i would think 15-20%

 

[greenbean36191]

Yes, the shrimp is likely to keep picking on the slug. It may or may not ink again depending on what its diet has been since it was collected and how much it has inked already. They can ink from 1-3 times before it's exhausted, but if there is red algae in their diet they can continue to produce more ink. The ink is just a soup of amino acids and isn't harmful unless it's in high enough concentrations to actually coat the gills of other animals.

 

[ludiNano]

The shrimp seems to have stoped it had been awile since i fed the tank meaty items. And the hare did ink 1 big one and a couple small ones.

There is some red bubble algea that forms a thick mat. Is this the red algea.

 

[ludiNano]

So far i did a 50% and the skimmer going wet w/ very purple bubbles.

 

[Tennyson]

A Sea Hare spewing ink?
Are you sure it's a sea hare?

And peppermints will sometimes commonly attack new invertebrates and especially corals added to the tank. Mine both attacked my frogspawn, and my coco worm!!! But it usually only happens the first day it's introduced, then the peppermint will stop attacking.

Good luck with the ink, it may be that stuff some species of sea hare's release when they die/are distressed and being attacked? I'm not sure, but it was said to irritate fish and stuff.
Anyway, good luck

 

[ludiNano]

Dr. shimek writes in reference of Spotted sea hares

"Will secrete a thick Purple ink if stressed; theink has not been shown to be toxic, but its is probably good to do a water change if a sea hare colors your tank."

He writes that the spotted hares are from the caribbean, the other indo hare mentioned spews a red ink.

Don't caribbean animals far poorly in Indo Pacific based Reefs?