Did my dolabella sea hare do this?!

fishqueen · Mar 24, 2023

Just received a shipment of dolabella sea hares to our store about two days ago. Really interesting fellows and they seem great so far. (We have one tank that has cyano and correct me or not but they eat that right?)

Anyway, I just saw this appear in the tank and mind you, he is the only guy we’ve added to this tank. He rooms with a coral beauty Angel, a clownfish, and some assortment of small snails.

Warning, idk to label this as NSFW because I have no idea what it is, but all I know is this appeared two days after he arrived it’s about 2 inches? I’m high key thinking it’s some sort of sperm plug or something if so, maybe it means he’s happy LOL

MERKEY · Mar 24, 2023

Sure looks like an egg mass to me.

ISpeakForTheSeas · Mar 24, 2023

nmmann said:
Just received a shipment of dolabella sea hares to our store about two days ago. Really interesting fellows and they seem great so far. (We have one tank that has cyano and correct me or not but they eat that right?)

Anyway, I just saw this appear in the tank and mind you, he is the only guy we’ve added to this tank. He rooms with a coral beauty Angel, a clownfish, and some assortment of small snails.

Warning, idk to label this as NSFW because I have no idea what it is, but all I know is this appeared two days after he arrived it’s about 2 inches? I’m high key thinking it’s some sort of sperm plug or something if so, maybe it means he’s happy LOL

Those are eggs:

ISpeakForTheSeas said:
Most likely not. Do you know the species by chance though, and do you have more than one? I know at least some sea hares are hermaproditic, but they’re not self-fertile and to my knowledge they can’t store sperm to fertilize eggs at a later date like some animals can. So, if you only have one the eggs are probably not fertile. Plus, even if they are fertile, the sea hares I’ve looked at have planktonic larvae - so they’ll be eaten or pulled into filters, killed by powerheads, etc.

If you want to raise them, you’d almost certainly need a growout tank setup for that purpose.

fishqueen · Mar 24, 2023

MERKEY said:
Sure looks like an egg mass to me.

That’s awesome lol! Should I do anything with them?

MERKEY · Mar 24, 2023

https://www.saltwateraquariumblog.com/aplysia-sea-hare-slug/
Here's an article.

If you have the room you may be able to raise them.

fishqueen · Mar 24, 2023

ISpeakForTheSeas said:
Those are eggs:

Thank you for the detailed response! I don’t think our systems could provide an ideal environment for them. The species is dolabella auricularia I believe, I can confirm tomorrow.