Sea Hare

[sundance1]

I went to the pet stores in Monreoville today and one of them had an awful looking thing called a Sea Hare.The man working there said they were great for eating hair algae(that I have in good supply and can't seem to get rid of)and if there was no algae in my tank,it would eat the same algae strips my tangs eat.To make a long story short,I bought one.Is there anything I should know about this animal the fish store didn't tell me?I don't make a habit of buying without research,but the fish store is 100 miles away and I don't make the trip very often.

 

[reefnut]

Sea Hares are cool I think... and yes they are great hair algae eaters. I'm not sure about them eating algae sheets but I guess it's possible.
Here's mine I had...

 

[sundance1]

Too cool! How long have you had him? I sure hope the guy was right when he said they are reef safe! They look like they could eat alot!

 

[mudplayerx]

Awsome sea hare Reefnut. I had a giant black one I bought recently but I had to return it. It was just so big for my 55 gallon tank that it was pretty ridiculous; knocking down stuff all the time. I wish I could find a smaller one around here... I liked it almost as much as my old sea cucumber.

I think I read somewhere that sea cucumbers have very short lifespans.... is this correct?

 

[reefnut]

From my understanding they do have short life spans. I had to revise my above post because I actually lost him a little while ago. It wasn't a food issue and nothing else I could think of other than old age, so to speak.

 

[sundance1]

That sucks,sorry to hear that you lost him.Do they release poison when they die?I read somewhere that they might do that.

 

[reefnut]

Not that I know of.

 

[sundance1]

My seahare was on the rocks near the top of the reef today,so I decided to try to hand feed it some of the paper like seaweed that I feed my tangs.HE LOVED IT! he ate a 1"x1" piece that I pulled apart in small pieces and hand fed him! Too cool!

 

[minitruck]

I had a pretty big size sea hare and when i ran out of hair algea I fed it the seaweed sheets and it too loved the stuff. I lost mine to a power head accident. My sponge prefilter fell off and the sea hair wanderd too close...........

 

[golfish]

Originally Posted by minitruck
I lost mine to a power head accident. My sponge prefilter fell off and the sea hair wanderd too close...........

That tends to kill em pretty fast...If your going to try and keep a Sea hare you MUST cover all pump intakes. These things aren't perddy when they die and they can make one he!! of a mess....been there, killed that.

 

[bchbum189]

i remember when i bought my sea hare 3 months ago, it was roughly the size of my thumb, and my tank had so much algea it looked like a prairy in there. Now the tanks so clean i have to go and buy algea sheets casue it keeps climbing into my overflow box and cleaning that out and getting sucked into my sump

 

[bchbum189]

heres a little before and after

 

[crashedin0]

damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is a lot homie