sea hare poisons

[Ryanqk]

I recently had to nudge my sea hare off an intake and on the way down it released clouds of purple ink into my 30gl. Fortunatly i was running lots of carbon at the time, but shortly after my skimmer kicked up some pretty cool looking purple foam. Its been 4-5 days now and i notice no ill effects on my livestock at all. Does anyone else have experience with sea hare ink? I read that it is quite toxic but i guess my reef rode it out without any effects.
Ryan

 

[greenbean36191]

There is no evidence that the ink is anything more than a waste product from eating red algae. The other part of the secretion, opaline, is defensive but all it does is overload the attacker's senses. About the only example of sea hares poisoning anything (other than by degrading water quality when they rot in a tank) is some dogs eating one species that doesn't show up in the hobby and then croaking.

 

[Ryanqk]

hmm thats interesting becuase my sea hair seems to have an affinity to green hair (turf) algae, I have red bubble algae in the tank (the only red algae i have) but it never touches it.

 

[650-IS350]

My seahare tries to munch on the turf as well... ate caulerpa and hair.

 

[greenbean36191]

Not all red algae are equally palatable. They can't make the ink without eating it though. If yours hasn't ever inked before then it's been storing the ink since before it was caught.

 

[Ryanqk]

well i hope its out of its system now, although the foam turned a pretty color i doubt its good for the rest of the tank, even if its not very toxic

 

[greenbean36191]

They usually hold enough ink in the ink gland for 2-3 inkings.

 

[650-IS350]

Thank goodness mine never ink, even when I disturb him to go to another side of tank to work on algae spots..

 

[650-IS350]

yo, greenbean, is that a P$%*star on your icon??? just wondering.... dont want to offend..