Sea Hare

[packer]

I was thinking of putting a sea hare in my tank as I have a little hair algae starting to show up. I think it came in on a frag plug. I dont want to crash my tank so wondered if any types of fish will harass the slug and cause it to put out toxins. My parameters are good and the algae is not really spreading too much, and I can not remove the rock to clean it. I could take it back to the LFS after it eats its fill so it will find a new home full of food. Just concerned about the chance to cause more problems than simply watching the small amount of hair algae.

 

[packer]

no seahare users out there????????

 

[Hingeback]

I have kept seahares for a number of years. At no point have they ever released any toxins.
I have heard of peppermint shrimps bothering them and the odd cleaner but none of mine have.
Seahares are unbelievable in the quantity of hair algae they can eat. I have 4 reefs now and 3 hares. There is not usually enough hair algae for them to eat, so I hire mine out. They go on holiday for a week or two and then come back to mine to spring clean. I do keep a basket right at top of reef which being so close to light grows algae quite quickly just as a top up. if there is not enough algae it can be quite difficult to get them to eat other foods. They appear to be reef safe but may knock the odd unsecured coral.
You will have to keep all power heads and streams out of reach or secured as they can easily become trapped on the intakes of these.

Best wishes