Sea Hare issue

[DJF]

didn’t see an invert emergency forum so posting here on behalf of a fellow reefer looking for guidance with sea hare issue. The hare is currently removed from the tank in an isolated container with provided air & heat to keep stable.

Tank size-40g
Age of tank-1yr
Lighting-2/t5 bulbs with reefbreeder 24led
Salinity-1.025
Water temperature-76-77
Nitrites-0
Nitrates-5
Calcium (If applicable)-450
Magnesium-1450
Alk or pH-8.0
Dosing anything?-phytoplankton/ kalk for ph.
Any recent changes to tank- swapped out 1 ATI coral blue plus for ati attinic bulb.
Inhabitants (fish)- 2 rass 3 fire fish, 1 fire shrinp, 1 peppermint shrimp, 3 springer damsels.

So I recently picked up a sea hare for my algae a few weeks ago, he has been doing great, but this morning he was floating around the bottom of my tank and looks like a balloon about to pop! I put him in a quarantine tank and now he looks to be ok he straightened out but he is as stiff as a board not sticking to anything. Any thoughts on what is happening? His regular habit was to graze then sleep for a few days, rinse and repeat, but today I thought it was dead.

 

[SlugSnorter]

they are not hardy and starve very easy. maybe dead.

 

[DJF]

Thanks for the reply- plenty of gha still in the tank and he appears to still be moving.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Thanks for the reply- plenty of gha still in the tank and he appears to still be moving.

they don't eat all GHA, and may not eat GHA thats too long. Some GHA has deadly poison. Return to tank, will 100% starve in QT if still alive.

also, do you use 0 TDS RODI water? is your salinity, ph, and temp stable? have you/do you add any medication to the water?

 

[DJF]

Just received an update that he believes it is dead and is proceeding as such. No meds & I believe they are stable. Appreciate the help.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Having had a few of these, once they split, they are dead and will then bloat then rot

 

[SlugSnorter]

Having had a few of these, once they split, they are dead and will then bloat then rot

didn't read carefully enough, its dead. They do this because their internal shell is holding in the gasses from decomposition.

 

[DJF]

Good info- appreciate you both. As far as gha natural predators, are turbos more resilient?

 

[vetteguy53081]

didn't read carefully enough, its dead. They do this because their internal shell is holding in the gasses from decomposition.

I actually did and wanted to reiterate the splitting.TDS will not have an adverse effect but higher nitrate will as will then eating cyano or Dino by mistake which contains toxins followed by starvation due to low intake of foods

 

[stacksoner]

This is what they look like right before they die unfortunately.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Are you using vibrant or algaefix?