what the heck is this ?

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alexmara76

alexmara76

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The tank looks clean , and is just going through its stages of getting mature .
A sea hare is an algae eating machine, and will need nori or some kind of extra food in that tank !!
Get lots of snails they will keep it under control.
the water its not crystal clear, but I think is normal during this stage , yes I have 3 turbo snail plus other 3 snails smaller than the turbo snail, but I don't remember their names
 

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I didn't know it lol , I took it in anticipation of the ugly stage, I don't know if it already started , or its comign soon, i'm new in the reef ...
Speaking of clean, this guy can potentially starve, You want to acquire when you have a field of green hair algae and even then you arrive at point of what to do with it when algae is all gone. They move less, start to weaken and stay in one spot until perished and even then hard to tell
 
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Speaking of clean, this guy can potentially starve, You want to acquire when you have a field of green hair algae and even then you arrive at point of what to do with it when algae is all gone. They move less, start to weaken and stay in one spot until perished and even then hard to tell
it looks very active, on sand there is a lot of food , on the glass too, I don't think it will starve , it "works" hard
 

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it looks very active, on sand there is a lot of food , on the glass too, I don't think it will starve , it "works" hard
Thats what you want to see. Now you have established its behavior/activity pattern and will then know when something has changed.
 
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Thats what you want to see. Now you have established its behavior/activity pattern and will then know when something has changed.
I hope , this morning or last night it release more eggs , I’ve tried to remove them but there are in a difficult position
 

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I hope , this morning or last night it release more eggs , I’ve tried to remove them but there are in a difficult position
You may already know this, but just in case, I wanted to mention that sea hares also contain toxins that can nuke your tank, being a soft defenseless sea slug, they have adapted this as a defense mechanism.

I agree with what others have said, your tank is likely too young and cannot provide enough algae to sustain a sea hare. I also remember reading somewhere that certain sea hares only release eggs when they are stressed and close to dying. They are absolutely voracious eaters, and will starve when no algae remains. I had one that completely cleared out an algae infested 250 gallon tank in under a month and ended up eating about 4 nori sheets per day before I traded him back to the LFS. My 10 inch tangs only eat about 2 sheets per day each.

And this may already have been settled, but +1 for sea hare eggs ID in first photo set.

As for removing the eggs if they are in a tough to reach spot. Don’t worry about it. Unless you have 2 or more sea hares, even though sea hares are hermaphroditic they cannot self fertilize eggs. Those eggs should just degrade and become fish/coral food.
 

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I hope , this morning or last night it release more eggs , I’ve tried to remove them but there are in a difficult position
For the OP, the amount of food these guys need is a serious consideration, as is the toxin (for most toxic animals in our aquariums, I'd recommend keeping a fresh batch of saltwater on hand in case you need to do an emergency water change, running carbon or keeping carbon on hand that you can run in case of an emergency, educating yourself on the toxin, and using proper PPE). Anyway, about the eggs:
Unless you have two sea hares, I would assume the eggs are not fertilized (meaning they would not be able to hatch).

Generally speaking, you don't need to remove eggs from things that spawn in your tank, but it seems a lot of people choose to remove their sea hare eggs specifically just to be safe.
For MischiefReef - as mentioned below, I've read that as well, but in the thread linked below it seems that the OP's sea hares lasted for ~2-4 months after first spawning (which is a long time for a sea hare that starts mating at ~2-3 months old):
I also remember reading somewhere that certain sea hares only release eggs when they are stressed and close to dying.
I've seen it mentioned in a few scientific articles (the only ones I recall offhand were about Bursatella leachii), but it seems that the info may be inaccurate regardless (assuming I've correctly ID'd the species in this other thread, that is):
 

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For the OP, the amount of food these guys need is a serious consideration, as is the toxin (for most toxic animals in our aquariums, I'd recommend keeping a fresh batch of saltwater on hand in case you need to do an emergency water change, running carbon or keeping carbon on hand that you can run in case of an emergency, educating yourself on the toxin, and using proper PPE). Anyway, about the eggs:

For MischiefReef - as mentioned below, I've read that as well, but in the thread linked below it seems that the OP's sea hares lasted for ~2-4 months after first spawning (which is a long time for a sea hare that starts mating at ~2-3 months old):
That was exactly the post I was thinking of. Many thanks for the link! @ISpeakForTheSeas
 

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Ive had several and lost 2 and never seen ink or toxins. Even had a Mantis shrimp eat one with no toxins
Yes, I do agree and think the chances of them nuking the tank are quite low. None the less I’ve seen a few horror story posts which definitely made me hesitant to keep sea hares in my own tank. Admittedly my own experience with sea hares is extremely limited as I’ve only kept one once and for only about 2 months. Sorry if my initial post made it seem like a tank nuking was a certain outcome!
 
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You may already know this, but just in case, I wanted to mention that sea hares also contain toxins that can nuke your tank, being a soft defenseless sea slug, they have adapted this as a defense mechanism.

I agree with what others have said, your tank is likely too young and cannot provide enough algae to sustain a sea hare. I also remember reading somewhere that certain sea hares only release eggs when they are stressed and close to dying. They are absolutely voracious eaters, and will starve when no algae remains. I had one that completely cleared out an algae infested 250 gallon tank in under a month and ended up eating about 4 nori sheets per day before I traded him back to the LFS. My 10 inch tangs only eat about 2 sheets per day each.

And this may already have been settled, but +1 for sea hare eggs ID in first photo set.

As for removing the eggs if they are in a tough to reach spot. Don’t worry about it. Unless you have 2 or more sea hares, even though sea hares are hermaphroditic they cannot self fertilize eggs. Those eggs should just degrade and become fish/coral food.
Oh dang I didn’t know this , about the toxins, so what I have to do now , take it away from the tank ? I have only one of this and it release for the second time the eggs under a rock not easy to reaching , so following what you said I’m going to leave them , but now I don’t know what to do with the sea hare if it going to release any toxins
 

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Oh dang I didn’t know this , about the toxins, so what I have to do now , take it away from the tank ? I have only one of this and it release for the second time the eggs under a rock not easy to reaching , so following what you said I’m going to leave them , but now I don’t know what to do with the sea hare if it going to release any toxins
If you plan to keep the sea hare then running some activated carbon should be able to clear any toxins if ever it does decide to release them. Otherwise, LFS will usually take the sea hare back or as a trade for store credit. To get him out of the tank just wait till he’s in a spot you can reach and scoop him up as gently as possible from underneath try not to squeeze him as this sometimes triggers the release of ink.
Also, I want to clarify my previous comment again so as not to cause you undue panic. Don’t stress it too much, common consensus seems to be that sea hares extremely rarely nuke a tank. The horror stories of experiences where they have done so seem to be the exceptional outliers and not the typical case.
 
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If you plan to keep the sea hare then running some activated carbon should be able to clear any toxins if ever it does decide to release them. Otherwise, LFS will usually take the sea hare back or as a trade for store credit. To get him out of the tank just wait till he’s in a spot you can reach and scoop him up as gently as possible from underneath try not to squeeze him as this sometimes triggers the release of ink.
Also, I want to clarify my previous comment again so as not to cause you undue panic. Don’t stress it too much, common consensus seems to be that sea hares extremely rarely nuke a tank. The horror stories of experiences where they have done so seem to be the exceptional outliers and not the typical case.
At this point I’m not going to risk the tank , too many risk for who has very low experience, maybe is better to bring it to the LFS and get more turbo snail . I don’t know either why it is releasing all these eggs , if it’s part of his natural life or because he is dying , too many different opinion
 

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