Sea Hares

[jackinfobo]

Does anyone know if a blue dot sea hare or a spotted sea hare will live happily in a reef aquarium? I'm just concerned about the water temperature, I keep my tank at 77degrees. I have heard several times sea hares like cooler waters, but i'm not sure if 77degrees is cool enough for the blue dot sea hare or the spotted sea hare.

 

[greenbean36191]

Most likely no, and it has nothing to do with your temperature, which is already pretty low. For one, these are lagoonal animals that like a lot of open sandy area with low flow where they can graze on diatoms and cyanobacteria. They aren't really suited to a high flow tank mostly filled with rock. Second, this species is usually collected when they aggregate in shallow water to mate- after which most die. They're collected as they're dying, so naturally they don't last long in captivity regardless of the conditions.

If you want a sea hare, stick to Dollabella, Dolabrifera, or if you have a very big tank, Aplysia.