Sea Hare Experiences

[trevorhiller]

I was at Petco today buying a bangaii cardinal and they had two Sea Hares in stock. I have been doing manual removal of hair algae and substrate rinsing since before June with little relief. Unfortunately, I have been having bad luck with fish and therefore keep having to feed heavily to fatten up the new fish which is likely contributing to the hair algae despite my best efforts at manual removal and controlling nutrients.

The Sea Hare seemed like the perfect compliment to my CUC, so I decided to bring one home after spending a half hour in the store researching them on my phone.

Those of you that have had them, how long did you have it and any helpful tips you can share? I would love to keep long term because I think he's really cool looking. I've read they can put a large dent in the algae and starve, but can be supplemented with Nori or macroalgae if needed but personal experiences are always nice to hear!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Like other members of your cuc, sea hares will be most effective if long patches of algae are cut or removed as they often do best with algae they can easily move over. Yes, they can easily starve when they run out of algae, but if you have algae in your sump, you can move them there for a while. You can also rent it out to fellow hobbyists or sell back to the fish store...

 

[nkyreef]

My sea hares always found their way into a powerhead and ultimately all died in that manner. It was so frustrating. However they did make a huge dent in my hair algae before I was able to get my nutrients under control. I did try to hand feed nori a couple of times just to see if they'd take it but they never did.

 

[chipchipbro]

Once I added a seahare in my tank to remove green hair algae...
Well, that worked like a charm and he did remove all GHA in ONE!! day

OK, I wanted to remove him and pass it to friend with another big tank full of algae to graze..
I wanted to grab the seahare and maybe I did squeeze it a bit too much.. he suddenly started to spawn and spit out red/purple ink all over my tank.. my skimmer pulled purple stuff and was full purple.. the tank also was full purple/red and a few weeks later all of my Acros started to RTN....

just my experience

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Once I added a seahare in my tank to remove green hair algae...
Well, that worked like a charm and he did remove all GHA in ONE!! day

OK, I wanted to remove him and pass it to friend with another big tank full of algae to graze..
I wanted to grab the seahare and maybe I did squeeze it a bit too much.. he suddenly started to spawn and spit out red/purple ink all over my tank.. my skimmer pulled purple stuff and was full purple.. the tank also was full purple/red and a few weeks later all of my Acros started to RTN....

just my experience

That was not a spawn. It was a defensive mechanism similar to what squid and octopus do. The dye can be lethal to tank ihabitants and corals.

 

[chipchipbro]

That was not a spawn. It was a defensive mechanism similar to what squid and octopus do. The dye can be lethal to tank ihabitants and corals.

yeah.. it was a real mess...
I dont know but that stuff seemed to be toxic... fish were all good... but acros got mad

 

[Eagle_Steve]

yeah.. it was a real mess...
I dont know but that stuff seemed to be toxic... fish were all good... but acros got mad

It all depends on the amount of water in the tank, the sea hare and how fast it is pulled out (skimmer, carbon, etc).

But sea hares are pretty cool. They do consume a massive amount of algae though. Being a great way to get it knocked back in larger tanks while you figure out the root cause of the algae.

When I have had them to clear help clear out some invasive macros that my tangs just could not keep up with, I always put a piece of nori on the tip of my hand and then let the sea hare crawl up to get it. From there, you can gently remove them from the tank and rehome.

As long as they are treated to where they do not feel threatened, then you should have no worry about them "inking".

 

[chipchipbro]

It all depends on the amount of water in the tank, the sea hare and how fast it is pulled out (skimmer, carbon, etc).

But sea hares are pretty cool. They do consume a massive amount of algae though. Being a great way to get it knocked back in larger tanks while you figure out the root cause of the algae.

When I have had them to clear help clear out some invasive macros that my tangs just could not keep up with, I always put a piece of nori on the tip of my hand and then let the sea hare crawl up to get it. From there, you can gently remove them from the tank and rehome.

As long as they are treated to where they do not feel threatened, then you should have no worry about them "inking".

I totally agree!
Seahares are very very cool animals and I loved to watch that soft giant slowly moving through my tank over the rocks and eating all that GHA. It was fascinating!
I had NO experience with seahares and didnt know how to get him out... that thing was very slimy and one can barley grab it though.. next time when I add a seahare (only if I have algae issues) I know how to deal with them... never saw such a smooth giant moving in between the frags and not knocking off one single tiny frag.. so nice!

 

[trevorhiller]

It all depends on the amount of water in the tank, the sea hare and how fast it is pulled out (skimmer, carbon, etc).

But sea hares are pretty cool. They do consume a massive amount of algae though. Being a great way to get it knocked back in larger tanks while you figure out the root cause of the algae.

When I have had them to clear help clear out some invasive macros that my tangs just could not keep up with, I always put a piece of nori on the tip of my hand and then let the sea hare crawl up to get it. From there, you can gently remove them from the tank and rehome.

As long as they are treated to where they do not feel threatened, then you should have no worry about them "inking".

Good tip. I did pick it up to put it in the tank because I wanted to rinse him off to make sure there was no store water on it before I added him to my tank and it went fine.

chipchipmofo is one of the very few I’ve seen say they have first hand experience with the ink. Most reports I’ve seen of this are people regurgitating this factoid, but not actually seeing it first hand.

I do have nem guards on my Nero’s because I had a small watchman goby, so there shouldn’t be anything it can run into in my tank.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Good tip. I did pick it up to put it in the tank because I wanted to rinse him off to make sure there was no store water on it before I added him to my tank and it went fine.

chipchipmofo is one of the very few I’ve seen say they have first hand experience with the ink. Most reports I’ve seen of this are people regurgitating this factoid, but not actually seeing it first hand.

I do have nem guards on my Nero’s because I had a small watchman goby, so there shouldn’t be anything it can run into in my tank.

I commercially collect macros and other sea life in FL from time to time. I run across sooty sea hares and the standard ones all the time. With that said, I have been inked numerous times lol. Pinkish purple hands due to them inking when sorting through the macro on the boat lol.

But yeah, I have rarely saeen them actually ink in a tank from contact. Most the time it is only i they get caught in a powerhead or are put into a tank where a fish seriously pesters them.

 

[chipchipbro]

the thing is..
it was a kinda big seahare a black one.. and the tank was only a 20gallon nano
The seahare was like 5inches long.. and it inked for like 10seconds 2-3 times

was crazy but the skimmer went nuts and skimmed the hell out of the tank..
but yeah like I said.. acros all RTN'ed some weeks later all at the same time..

 

[trevorhiller]

It does sound like the dye is based on what they are eating. So perhaps this explains why some have different experiences with the inking.

 

[trevorhiller]

Another video of inking, it seems you have to really agitate them to stimulate the inking:



cool creatures, I’ll be sure to update on my experience with it here

 

[shakacuz]

i've had 2. both died due to nutrient spikes from algae dying/being eaten and raising my no3/po4. i do also have a cleaner shrimp that stressed them out constantly by picking at them. i would get another again but definitely after my cleaner is moved or...dies. they are amazing algae eaters and even helped with my bryopsis problem i had a while back!

 

[Dburr1014]

I had one, never touched algae even with my attempts to place him directly on hair algae. Lived about 6 weeks and the hermit crabs had a very big snack.

 

[trevorhiller]

Update:

I went to do a water change today and found the sea hare shrunk, lying upside down on the sand with my urchin picking at it. I was able to remove it from the tank without any ink or anything being released. It stunk very bad. Fortunately I am running carbon and proceeded with a 10 gallon water change that I was already planning.

I did not notice it eat much hair algae other than the initial little patch it consumed. He was moving all around the tank and was in a different spot every time I saw him, so I am not sure what happened. The guy at PetCo told me to bring it back if it didn't survive and I could have the other one they have so I did that, but the girl working refused to honor his word since their 30 day livestock policy doesn't cover saltwater.

I would try another one, because I feel like this was a fluke, but I don't want to spend another $25 on one right now. Kind of a bummer because he was really cool to watch moving around the tank.

 

[merkmerk73]

Old thread, but I just took a large one home.

Used kitchen/medical gloves and put him directly on some nasty patches of GHA and he has been going to town all night.

So far so good.

 

[beesnreefs]

Old thread, but I just took a large one home.

Used kitchen/medical gloves and put him directly on some nasty patches of GHA and he has been going to town all night.

So far so good.

Any update @merkmerk73? I’m getting one for a bad GHA outbreak

 

[merkmerk73]

Any update @merkmerk73? I’m getting one for a bad GHA outbreak

The first one was able to wipe out almost all of my GHA - but the GHA problem I had was not severe. This was in early Feb.

I got a second one after trading this one in, and it wasn't really enough by itself to handle a massive outbreak that I couldn't control - late May / early June timeframe.

Ultimately it was the dosing of Vibrant that wiped out my GHA problem over the course of about 6 weeks.

But it will kill your Chaeto too - so you have to make the sacrifice

Sea Hares do a really good job of keeping it under control - while they are alive, though. Try to get a small one if you can - the bigger ones are closer to the end of their life span, and my second one started dying in the tank so I tossed it before it could cause any issues.

It had developed that telltale 'split' in its back.

They're very peaceful but they will bulldoze frags and stuff.