I have had a heck of a time keeping a sea hare. I am on my 4th one overall, and none have lasted more than a week.
To set the stage, I have a 310g display with a 60g sump, 40g dedicated refugium, 50g frag tank, and 40g mixing tank, for 500g total system volume. Over the past 3 months, my trident's nitrates typically read 0, sometimes 0.1 or very rarely 0.2. Phosphates are typically 0.01 or 0.02. These are verified on hannah checks periodically. Despite this, I have been fighting an intense war against GHA and bryopsis. I have since added a biopellet reactor to help push nutrients even lower, and dosed fluconazole. I have more than halved feeding. This eradicated the bryopsis, but not the GHA.
So I decided to take a more biologic approach. I have an achilles tang, purple tang, and rabbitfish. 6 urchins (had to move one to the refugium because he developed a taste for SPS corals...). I decided a sea hare would be a good clean up crew addition.
The first arrived DOA.
The 2nd and 3rd were provided by my LFS who performs weekly maintenance/water changes for me. The first of the 2 died within 24 hours. The other I saw crawling around for 72 hours, but never saw again...
So I obtained a 4th one. This time I acclimated into the frag tank so I could watch him. He crawled, he ate, so I moved him to the display. I saw him move around and eat day 1, didn't see him day 2, and found him deceased on the substrate day 3. He did have tissue damage from predation, but I'm unsure if this was what did him in or if he was scavenged after. I do have a melanarus wrasse, which would be the most likely suspect.
Do you all think the wrasse is killing off the sea hares? Or is there something intrinsic that is not allowing them to survive? Before you jump in with the sea-hares-eat-so-much-they-run-out-of-food argument, they haven't lasted long enough to make a dent. I siphon out about a cup of green hair algae *daily*. Are there any other parameters that sea hares are sensitive to?
Thanks!!
To set the stage, I have a 310g display with a 60g sump, 40g dedicated refugium, 50g frag tank, and 40g mixing tank, for 500g total system volume. Over the past 3 months, my trident's nitrates typically read 0, sometimes 0.1 or very rarely 0.2. Phosphates are typically 0.01 or 0.02. These are verified on hannah checks periodically. Despite this, I have been fighting an intense war against GHA and bryopsis. I have since added a biopellet reactor to help push nutrients even lower, and dosed fluconazole. I have more than halved feeding. This eradicated the bryopsis, but not the GHA.
So I decided to take a more biologic approach. I have an achilles tang, purple tang, and rabbitfish. 6 urchins (had to move one to the refugium because he developed a taste for SPS corals...). I decided a sea hare would be a good clean up crew addition.
The first arrived DOA.
The 2nd and 3rd were provided by my LFS who performs weekly maintenance/water changes for me. The first of the 2 died within 24 hours. The other I saw crawling around for 72 hours, but never saw again...
So I obtained a 4th one. This time I acclimated into the frag tank so I could watch him. He crawled, he ate, so I moved him to the display. I saw him move around and eat day 1, didn't see him day 2, and found him deceased on the substrate day 3. He did have tissue damage from predation, but I'm unsure if this was what did him in or if he was scavenged after. I do have a melanarus wrasse, which would be the most likely suspect.
Do you all think the wrasse is killing off the sea hares? Or is there something intrinsic that is not allowing them to survive? Before you jump in with the sea-hares-eat-so-much-they-run-out-of-food argument, they haven't lasted long enough to make a dent. I siphon out about a cup of green hair algae *daily*. Are there any other parameters that sea hares are sensitive to?
Thanks!!
