sea hare: does it eat caulerpa or not?

[Sk8r]

My lfs [experienced reefer] says no, that they only eat hair algae; Foster Smith advertises them as eating caulerpa. Which is right?

 

[greenbean36191]

No, they don't eat Caulerpa. AFAIK, the only slugs that eat Caulerpa are sacoglossans. I certainly wouldn't say that sea hares only eat hair algae though. There are about 25 species, all with different diets. Many of them would never eat hair algae.

 

[Sk8r]

Thanks, Greenbean. It's up to my urchin, then. I was just hoping to find something that could get where he can't.

 

[650-IS350]

Actually I have one for 3-4 months now that combined with a foxface wiped out the caulerpa that came with my TBS rock...

 

[greenbean36191]

Got a picture of it?

 

[dfleary]

Do seahares eat algae from the aquarium glass?

 

[650-IS350]

No picture but my 100lbs of TBS rock had caulerpa all over it... he mowed it down to the rock.. why the heck would I make stuff up like that for? It might be weird but I did see him do it... I got him at 2 1/2 inch... now he's close to 4" now..

 

[Ryanqk]

mine is not eating caulerpa or halimeda but is eating green turf algae and glass algae, i'm not sure if my turf algae is "hair algae" but it looks similiar, and its munching it down like a stoner on cheatos!

 

[greenbean36191]

I'm not saying you made it up. I'm curious to see which species of seahare you have.

 

[650-IS350]

this one..

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...rev=/images?q=seahare&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&sa=N

watched him mow it down to the rock surface... don't know if it was him or the fox face that mowed down the purple grape caulerpa that came with my TBS rock....