Sea Hare

B

BryanFox79

New member
I have recently added a sea hare to my 75 gallon tank to try to resolve an extremely bad HA problem. The hare has been in less than 2 days and we have not been able to locate it. My wife and I read that they can burrow in soft substrate. Has anyone heard of this? My skimmer seems to be producing normal amounts of waste. It was acclimated for 30 minutes before adding him, I think he was doing well because he almost immediately started to graze. Should we give him time to adjust to the tank, could he be burrowed, or is he nocturnal? Thanks for the help as always.

Bryan and Amanda Fox
 
They can hide very well, don't panic yet. They eat a lot and then sit for a while.

Give it a few days to wait and see.

Lee
 
hi bryan and amanda!

adding to lee's post, some sea hares are more active at night, and many of them like to hide in crevices and other dark places. :)
 
I purchased a sea hare awhile back to control my hair algae problem in my 55 gal reef tank, at that time the seahare was worth its weight in gold, he cleaned my tank of all hair algae within a month, and I have yet to have anthing match his efforts. This is where to story goes south... I woke up one morning to find that my "star" sea hare had gotten caught between one of my circ pumps and some live rock... he stressed..released toxins... died and wiped out 90% of my fish, only my Green Wrasse survived.

Be Careful
 
Yes they burrow. I saw mine doing it. After I bought him he went to town eating the HA. Then he just disappeared. Cannot find him. I think he died, but my tank didn't crash. All the HA came back. On the losing end of that battle. Good Luck
 
If he is really still there and eating the algae,you should see little strings of poo.Also,not to mention,algae disappearing.I had a 4" one and he cleaned all the rock in less than a week.He would always return to the same hiding place each day.He was mostly nocturnal too.They can also change color to camoflague themselves.When I removed him he was wedged in the rockwork.I pulled too hard and he inked in the tank.It was a bright purple color and with a good skimmer,removed it and harmed nothing.I hope he turns up for you!
 
mine is nocturnal as well, and hides in the sand during the day. mine poops out little "pellets" - actually they are big. the nuisance algae, mostly red slime is gone. I am trying to feed algae sheets to keep the sea hare going, I really like it now.
 
Thanks for all the good info! I have recently seen him much more now...day and night. I think I am too impatient though, I want the HA gone.
 
Cool yeah I had the same problem with my little dolabella, it used to hide in one of my rocks and never came out, now my friend is borrowing it to clean up his coral farm.
 
I'm a bit confused, I thought the sea hair secretions weren't toxic to the tank? I was going to add a dolabrifera dolabrifera/bali monster to my 70g but won't risk it if it could wipe out my tank.
 
Well, I don't have enough long-term experience with them to say what can happen down the line. I've read the same success and horror stories others have. I decided to add one to one of my 125's as I just couldn't get a gha outbreak under control, and my schedule is only getting tighter. At first he was nowhere to be seen. After about a month now, he has definitely had a significant impact on the gha, and will agree with them being largely nocturnal. I had the same worries about him for the first week or so.

I also have one in my prop system that came in as a hitchhiker. Cool wine colored, but exactly same shape characteristics of the green dolabella regularly seen. I had a problem with a red tuft macro, that while very colorful, and a great pod haven, just wasn't welcome in a prop system. It actually smothered a few frags. About two weeks after the mystery slug appeared, the red macro vanished. I mean completely! And there was a lot of it, all through the eggcrate too. He didn't even knock over a single frag in the process. Gotta love neat critters!
 
Yeah, I'm waiting to get my 90 gallon cycling and at least somewhat stable before I put my baby dolabella in because that little bugger EATS. I've got the tank in a greenroom to hopefully provide enough algae for this little guy, but I don't think that it'll be enough.

Also, about the toxicity of the sea hare's ink, it really isn't toxic but if you're in a small system and it stays in there too long I'm guessing it could irritate the animals especially like corals and whatnot.
 
i think a lawnmower blennie would help speed up the process of getting rid of your HA.
mine takes care of the HA in my tank..
plus they are cool looking fish.
lol
 
had no luck with that, hyrum. But my sea hare did eat macroalgae before. Chaetomorpha and caulerpa specifically.
 
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