Sea hare died, cause?

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Anyway i had this dolabella sea hare for about a month now, came back from a week long vacation and found it dead. Very recently dead as it had not begun to decay. My tank has an extreme gha issue (assuming from overfeeding) so in the last two months I ONLY feed my two fish and the corals get leftover scraps of what the fish don't eat. Anyway I've noticed that an extremely large patch of algae had been cleared before it had died, as well as the fact that over the month I've had it, it's waste orifice and the area around it was continuing to become pale (brushed it off at first) but when I found it dead it's entire backside had become white. No3 is basically 0 (algae absorbs all of it before it can be registered on any kind of test) and same story with po4 at 0.03, LFS says it could have been from overeating and the pale backside could be from overuse of the anus due to excess waste. Can anyone verify this and if not what do you think could be a cause?

 

[Dburr1014]

I traded some frags for one of these guys. The gentleman I got it from had it for months. It died in my tank in about a month.

I know they are super sensitive with salanity changes and a 2 hour drip is what is recommended (from memory).

I'm guessing, completly guessing, that is possible my GHA wasn't on its menu. IDK.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

While I've heard that these can live for up to 6 years, their average reported lifespan is about 16 months;* given how short the average lifespan is, it's quite possible you just happened to get a specimen that was about to age out.

*Source (I can only find the article as a download, so I'll just list the name here):
Occurences of Wedge Sea Hare, Dolabella auricularia (Lightfoot, 1786) from Kayalpatinam, Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu, India
The authors: S N Sethi, L Ranhith, & K Kannan

 

[sfin52]

It starved ot it was at the end of life. I imagine most of the really large ones are at end of life.

 

[djf91]

It seems about 9 in 10 of these last less than a month in aquariums from all of the posts I see. I think it could be dietary requirements not being properly met or maybe the species of GHA you have is toxic to them. I had one perish within 2 weeks time when I first set up my tank. It fed on the hair algae/chrysophytes/dinos that were covering my rocks but this concoction also seemed to make it sick. No other part of my cleanup crew would eat it either so I think that says something…

 

[littlefoxx]

Anyway i had this dolabella sea hare for about a month now, came back from a week long vacation and found it dead. Very recently dead as it had not begun to decay. My tank has an extreme gha issue (assuming from overfeeding) so in the last two months I ONLY feed my two fish and the corals get leftover scraps of what the fish don't eat. Anyway I've noticed that an extremely large patch of algae had been cleared before it had died, as well as the fact that over the month I've had it, it's waste orifice and the area around it was continuing to become pale (brushed it off at first) but when I found it dead it's entire backside had become white. No3 is basically 0 (algae absorbs all of it before it can be registered on any kind of test) and same story with po4 at 0.03, LFS says it could have been from overeating and the pale backside could be from overuse of the anus due to excess waste. Can anyone verify this and if not what do you think could be a cause?

These guys really only last a year, Ive had two. I love these guys a lot but they just dont do well in tanks

 

[djf91]

These guys really only last a year, Ive had two. I love these guys a lot but they just dont do well in tanks

I agree. They should not be recommended. It’s recommended to often that they be added to a one month old, cycling tank with a mat of god knows what on the rocks.

 

[littlefoxx]

I agree. They should not be recommended. It’s recommended to often that they be added to a one month old, cycling tank with a mat of god knows what on the rocks.

Yeah :( Ive had two, each died at or close to a year old. Got them when they were tiny too

 

[TylerJaid]

I think mine may be dying now, I have had it for almost a month, my gha started getting bad so I got a sea hare and bolstered my CUC. My gha was soaking up all the nitrates in my tank, so guess what? You guessed it! Dinos appeared and they grew on top of the gha, long, stringy, brown, I believe ostreopsis. So for the past two days as I have been fighting the gha and Dino’s my sea hate has crawled to the top rim of glass and is just sitting there, I assume he is dying but has not split yet.

So my question is, are hobbyists losing sea hares because when our tank is overran with gha and it takes all the nutrients, therefore getting Dino’s and our poor guys are eating a toxic meal? Not so much starving but eating a toxic salad that after a few weeks they can no longer handle? Just some food for thought I’m going to keep and eye on mine and see if he moves around more in the next day

 

[djf91]

In my opinion sea hares are a terrible idea for algae control in our systems. The majority of them end up passing within a few weeks of adding to the tank. Whether it be the wrong types of algae for them to thrive or poisoning from Dino’s, they always seem to whither away.

 

[TylerJaid]

In my opinion sea hares are a terrible idea for algae control in our systems. The majority of them end up passing within a few weeks of adding to the tank. Whether it be the wrong types of algae for them to thrive or poisoning from Dino’s, they always seem to whither away.

They are cool but I’ll never get another after this experience, I have a feeling that dinos or some form of toxic algae is what is killing them more times than not. Especially with how gha runs your nutrients right down to 0. I will be getting a lot of blue legged hermits as I have been seeing them do a lot of work on this algae and no side effects as of yet

 

[djf91]

Yep, when I started my system with 80% dry rock I went through all the uglies. Derbesia, Lyngbya (might have been chrysophytes), dinoflagellates, cyano. It’s all a part of ecological succession and trying to get to the final, mature stage of a coral reef. Consistent, manual scrubbing is what allowed for the desirable surface competitors to finally take hold in my system. After this was achieved, a clean up crew was able to keep things in check.