Sea Hare info/guide?

[Good4nothin]

I am thinking about getting a Sea Hare for my reef but I've been unable to find a good guide on keeping and caring for them. I did a search but I didn’t see any posts about keeping them.
I am considering buying one off of Liveaquaria, the species name they have listed is Aplysia. Will this type of sea hare eat prepared foods like lettuce or algae strips?
How often do they ink? I don’t have any fish that pick at inverts in my tank so would they ink if startled or is it mainly just if something physically bites them? Also, what type of filtration do you need to remove this ink, is it toxic or does it just cloud the water?
The info on liveaquaria says they prefer shade. Does this mean they wouldn’t do well in a tank with high lighting or does it just mean they would stay under the live rock until some of my lights turned off?

Any info would be appreciated

thanks

 

[Elysia]

If you change your preferences at the bottom of the "other invertebrates" forum to show threads from the last 30 or 60 days, and scroll through the pages, you should find approx. 492 posts about seahares (okay, that may be slight hyperbole on my part, but only slight.)

"Aplysia" is not a species name, it is a genera. There are various species within the genera. Aplysia spp. generally have a short lifespan of approx. a year. Some are from the coast of California, so need cooler waters than most reef tanks are kept at. Aplysia spp. also vary greatly in size (some max out at an inch, others at over two feet.)

Seahares do not ink at any defined rate. Inking may be used as a means to startle, confuse, and/or jam chemoreceptors of preators. The "ink" is not toxic. Like other organics that color the water, carbon would be a good idea for filtering out the any ink produced by a seahare's purple gland, although I guess you could use those polyfilters that are suppose to filter out various chemicals and organics. Note that not all seahares have the ability to produce this ink and with those that do, it is believed that the ink's color is related to the seahare's feeding on red algae; many in captivity do not have this option and will lose their ability to create this ink.

It is not simply fish that nip at invertebrates that have to watched with seahares. Any fish (or invertebrate, for that matter, such as an emerald crab) that picks at rocks or algae may also pick at a seahare. Seahares can also be consumed by anemones or killed by powerheads, pumps, filters, or rock slides. They are essentially sacks of viscous liquid and any rip or tears to their body can be fatal, regardless of who or what causes that rip. I would hazard the guess that such things are the number one killers of seahares in captivity.

You can find additional information at http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=aplysioidea

 

[Good4nothin]

Wow, thank you very much