Sea Hare Questions.

[Stuart60611]

I am considering buying a sea hare to help with my hair algae problem. And yes, I know that this is not a solution b/c I need to deal with its source which I am doing.

I do have some questions. I was looking at purchasing this one. My bigest concern is the toxin issue. I have a 34 gallon red sea max. How big a risk is it for this animal to nuke my tank? My current livestock consists of a bunch of dwarf blue leg hermits, various snails,1 royal gramma, 1 six line wrase, and a pair of false perculas. I also have a fairly large sally light foot crab. Do you think that any of these inhabitants will attack the sea hare and cause him to release toxin? The RSM does not have the greatest skimmer and therefore I am concerned that if this does happen and I am not around to deal with it immediately I could have a complete tank wipeout. I know that once the hair algae is all gone I have to get rid of the hare or otherwise it will die and release toxins.

Any thoughts?

 

[greenbean36191]

Sea hares don't release toxins. The dye they make is a soup of amino acids that overwhelms attackers' senses without causing any real harm. However, in high concentrations it can coat the gills of other animals and make them very unhappy. In a 34 this is unlikely to be a problem. However, many of these, especially most species of Aplysia get very large and are not suitable for a 34 for even a short amount of time. They're poorly adapted to reef tank conditions as that's not where they're normally found. That means that they're often very clumsy and prone to knocking things down or climbing up walls and getting sucked into powerheads. All of the animals you listed may potentially pose a risk to the slug too.

Such a large animal dying in such a small tank does pose a real threat of causing an ammonia spike. I wouldn't really recommend getting one.

 

[nate82]

I purchased the same one in my 15 to eradicate caluerpa. didn't have any problems at all but i got rid of it after about 3 weeks when it ran out of food

 

[Tennyson]

I plan to get two of these for my 46 gallon because my tank is basically filled with hair algea and algea on the wall. A sea hare was recommended to me, but it seems that you all think that they wouldn't be recommended, if the big one-aplysia isn't suitable, which species would be?

thanks

 

[nate82]

don't buy two trust me you don't need two, save yourself some cash. just buy a decent sized one they eat ALOT

 

[uno_mas]

sea hare

sea hare

i have a few dwarf sea hares to clean my tank. one i got from a lfs and a couple i got from drfs. they are in a 125 and i had one killed last week by a ravage hermit that is gone now but the sea hare did not seem to release any toxins that affected anything else. with my cuc my that includes quite a few hermits and snails as well as the sea hares and a sand sifting star fish my tank stays spotless.
hope this helps

 

[urbanthreatz]

I have one, he's a model citizen, he eats ANYTHING resembling algae, red slime, calurpa, cheato, bryopsis. He even had a run in where my mantis swatted him a few times and nothing happened. Me and my g/f switch him backand forth between the three tanks we have so he always has something to eat. Good investment...in my opinion.

 

[yankeereefer]

I have a dolabella (sp?) in a 20H - He's kind of a dummy - I have to pick him up and physically move it to the LR where I want it to eat otherwise it only wants to clean the glass.