Sea Hare

[btldreef]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gemmy http:///forum/thread/382527/sea-hare/20#post_3340171
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef http:///forum/thread/382527/sea-hare/20#post_3340168
I use both, depends how lazy I'm being, but honestly, a good 85% of the time, I defrost in tank water. I barely even rinse anymore I'm so lazy.
WOW, I can't believe I just admitted that.
I'm sure there are plenty of things we all do that we either don't admit to or don't want to admit to. My list seems to be growing by the day.

I'm so bad when I don't have any sick fish.... In the past week I have forgotten to feed twice because of all the xmas chaos, thank goodness the clownfish eggs just hatched and everyone got a little snack, lol

 

[slice]

Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef http:///forum/thread/382527/sea-hare/20#post_3340168
I use both, depends how lazy I'm being, but honestly, a good 85% of the time, I defrost in tank water. I barely even rinse anymore I'm so lazy.
WOW, I can't believe I just admitted that.
Same here, I have a container of plain RO water for rinsing, but tank water is right there in front of me, so yeah, lazy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gemmy http:///forum/thread/382527/sea-hare/20#post_3340156
I would use plain water not saltwater to thaw the food. The salt from the tank water will do something to the food maybe dehydrate it. I'm not sure, but this was what Bang recommended to do.
Yes, I remember Bang's post on this, it is why I got the container out for RO rinsing. I need to tighten up on my procedure.

 

[spottedseahare]

PLEASE DO NOT POST COMPETITORS NAMES her sea hares, spotted sea hare,s or dwarf blue-spotted sea hares for sale over the internet. I do not recommend any of them. They are for "advanced aquarists only." There are two main difficulties:
1) They require stable, high quality water. They are very sensitive to even small sudden changes in specific gravity, and they are very sensitive to ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.
2) It is difficult to feed them. They won't eat all kinds of algae. Moreover, even if you have a abundance of an algae they like, they will stop feeding after five or six days unless you have another appropriate species. Mine, a spotted sea hare ("Aplysia dactylomela") ate Ulva for the first six days, rapidly cleaning the Ulva from the rocks. After that, it went on a hunger strike. Then I put in Enteromorpha, which it ate with gusto for another five or six days. Then it would eat neither one. I discovered that it would eat Ocean Nutrition brand of "red marine algae" and nori, but not sheets of brown or green algae. The Ocean Nutrition red marine algae sheets sustained it for nearly another week, after which I put in an abundance of Agardhiella, which it ate like candy for more than a week. Then, after only about a month, it suddenly died. I do not know whether the problem was water quality or food, but up until it died it was quite active, and it was producing copious feces.
If you have multiple large tanks with a variety of abundant algae, or if you have a couple of "Planted tanks" with a variety of species, it might survive Do not purchase a sea hare and expect it to survive eating only hair algae. If your specific gravity gets too high or too low, gradually correct it over several days so as not to shock these sensitive animals.
I must say that sea hares are fascinating to watch. They are hideously ugly, and that may be part of their attraction. They actively move around, quite rapidly for a gastropod, and they often disturb benthic animals, especially sedentary ones. They will topple small rocks and coral frags.
If you have a problem with hair algae, and that is why you would like a sea hare, you would be better off lowering the nutrients. Get the ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, orthophosphate, and iron levels down to near zero, add a couple of dozen Astrea snails, and your hair algae will mostly disappear in a week or two.