Sea Hare FOA Reef Critters ADVISE PLEASE

[Diana]

Hi All I am new to the forum, I wonder if you can help. Need some information on a Sea Hare, done a bit of searching but to no avail.

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with them.

Do they release toxins if they die, like Sea Cucumbers. I know they
release ink as a protection, but what about when they die.

Doe this ink effect softies?

Any information welcome.

Many Thanks

Diana :)

[Macca]

Debate I am sure.

In nature the octopus releases an ink to distract its predator and whilst this is happening it darts away. The sea slug would not get very far after releasing its ink? So why is its defence mechanism ink? Well it could be because the ink has certain toxins within. This is quite open as I dont think it has been proven as a true defence mechanism although I could be wrong. It is a fact that dogs have died from eating sea hares! Sea hares natural diet includes many algae that contain toxins so this must also be considered. Personally I would only buy a dwarf sea hare (Aplysia sp - the ones we sell :D ) as they eat less. :D Do not buy a sea hare unless you have bundles of algae for it to feed upon as it will slowly die. Do not put in beside non reef fish and I personally think you will be fine. As a cautious issue make sure you run activated carbon in your system.

Hope this helps

James

- Does this ink effect softies? Only if you have a very small system and are not running carbon - then it might as it is a pollutant.

[Diana]

Hi :) Many thanks for your reply. I think I am going to give the sea hare a miss to be on the safe side.

Back to my snails and crabs I think :D

Thanks for your quick reply James, can you suggest any good algae grazers as I have
a bit of hair algae (Mithix I suppose?)

Also I have got a greeny/brown string like algae all over the subsrite & rocks and coral
I have got 3 x 150 watt 10,000k haloids and a turbo floater 1,000 skimmer.

I can't get rid of these algae blooms - Can you suggest anything, got the usual red legs, blue legs, normal turbo's, and a few of the sand burrowing snails (Forgot name sorry)

Many Thanks

Diana

[Macca]

Diane first of all welcome to the forum!

How long has your tank been running?

James

[Diana]

Many Thanks for your reply, Sorry I have delayed in my reply.

About 2 years.

:)

[Macca]

Diane what is you water parameters and what flow, lights, substrate, filters etc are you using. It is a long list I know but there might be something that is causing phosphates/nitrates that is feeding these blooms. Sometimes it is better spending time working out what is going wrong rather than resorting to a huge cleanup crew to tackle it.

James

[Wilfy]

Diana,
Your tank has got out of balance, not enough bacteria to remove the pollutants, I suggest cutting back a little on the feeding front until your tank gets back in equilibrium. It is having a mini cycle, like when you would have had the algae blooms when first set up. The tank will put itself right if you keep up with the water changes and reduce feeding.
Do you use a phosphate remover?

On the sea hare front, I had the pleasure of watching one feeding in a bay in Tenerife this summer whilst snorkelling, it was about 8" long and fascinating to watch. A few nights later i discovered one of a similar size washed up on the beach at dusk (I was fishing!!!) it was still alive so I returned it to the sea, with a handful of sand under it as I didn't know its toxicity.

Regards

Wilfy