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FAQs about Seahares,
Suborder Anaspidea,
Disease/Health
Related Articles: Sea Slugs, Nudibranchs,
Related FAQs: Seahares
1, Seahare Identification,
Seahare Behavior, Seahare Compatibility, Seahare Stocking/Selection, Seahare Systems, Seahare Feeding, Seahare Reproduction, & FAQs
on: Seaslugs 1, Seaslugs 2, Seaslug Identification, Seaslug Behavior, Seaslug Compatibility, Seaslug Selection, Seaslug Systems, Seaslug Feeding, Seaslug Disease, Seaslug Reproduction, & Marine Snails 1, Marine Snails 2, Marine Snails 3, Nudibranchs, Nudibranchs 2, Nudibranch Identification, Nudibranch Behavior, Nudibranch Compatibility, Nudibranch Selection, Nudibranch Systems, Nudibranch Feeding, Nudibranch Disease, Nudibranch Reproduction, Berghia Nudibranchs, Snail ID 1, Snail
ID 2, Snail ID
3,
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Sea Hare Demise (but which sea hare?) 8/26/11
I have need of your professional help I am currently using an
Aquaripure system dosing with vodka on my 90 gallon
tank, all my parameters are perfect. have been dosing since December
2010.
<<There are risks and rewards to this, it's one of those
'reef-trendy' hot-topics, the biggest risk is in testing,
it's difficult to tell how much Vodka has actually diffused into
the system and there in lies the problem of over dosing which can lead
to oxygen depletion and bacterial blooms, especially if the carbon
levels in your tank are low to begin with.>>
I recently noticed hair algae growing in tank
<<Hair algae as in cyanobacteria? Refer to my previous
statement.>>
so I purchased a sea hare. Currently the tank houses a mated pair of
tomato clowns (spawning) 5 solon fairy wrasses(female) 1 male solon
wrasse, fox face, deep water coral beauty, assorted mushrooms, zoos and
Palys hermits 2 sea Cukes, clams, snails and sea stars. I have not lost
any of my fish stock since started dosing. placed a sea hare in on
8-25-2011, it started eating hair algae immediately. As of 10:30pm
8-25-2011 was still cruising the tank returned home from work at 8:00am
8-26-2011 and sea stars and hermits were having a feast. Could the
vodka have caused it to pass on. Your input and a reply would be deeply
appreciated.
<<First off Bill, it's very important to identify the animal
you purchased there are several Opisthobranchia (Sea Slugs) sold into
the hobby as 'tropicals' that have no business being there to
begin with. The first is found off of the southern pacific coast of the
United States down into Baja California Mexico, this is temperate, read
cold water, species that does not survive long in reef aquariums as
70*'s F is considered to be at the highest extreme of the
temperature they can handle. They are more accustomed to temperatures
in the high 50's to mid 60's. I help care for three of these in
a Tidepool display and the temperature is set at 65* and it's
important to note that the husbandry staff considers that temperature
to be the 'summer' setting, even at that a chiller is still
needed. They also get large, 15', several pounds. The latter
sea-hare is the tropical Aplysia dactylomela, they are better adjusted
for captivity than their temperate cousins, and typically don't
grow larger than 6'. They are however still difficult to care for
in home aquaria as the survival rate, due to the way they are captured
and shipped is relatively low. Even worse these two species to the
untrained eye look very similar when both are but a mere two inches or
so, the size at which they are most commonly sold. As far as what is to
blame it's difficult to say as none of your inverts, especially
your echinoderms (sea star/cucumbers) appear affected by the vodka
(though circumstantial evidence certainly says your organic carbon and
oxygen levels may be). An animal that perished this soon was either
already ill/injured or something environmental in your tank or the
acclimation process caused its health to deteriorate fast. I would
first start by trying to ID what species you have, as for the hair
algae, it sounds like the symptom of another larger problem, rather
than being the problem itself. >>
Thanks
<<Anytime, and please remember to capitalize 'I' and the
beginning of each new sentence, and proper nouns (your name). Proper
grammar and spelling is really all that we ask for in exchange for this
free service, as we share your experiences with others in our FAQ's
in order to spread the knowledge. When we get an email with poor
grammar we either reject it (and you don't get the help you need)
or we the crew are forced to correct it taking up time that could be
used to help someone else with their pets. Thanks for your
understanding; I made most of the corrections this time for you, as I
wanted you to get a timely response. Our 'boss' is a stickler
for this and has passed on this 'pet-peeve' of sorts to us
minions. In the meantime please also refer to our article and FAQS on
sea hares
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/SeahareF.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/seaslugsopisthobranchs.htm>>
Bill Stewart
<<Adam Jackson.>>
Is My Sea Hare Under Attack?
11/7/10
Evening all! Tonight I saw my sea hare "Shrek" crawling by
and noticed a rather large (approx 2") white "worm" near
the side of his head. The worm had a small purple and orange marking on
it's tail and it was about 1/8" thick (fatter than spaghetti).
I attempted to remove it, but it seemed rather attached and after a
second attempt, Shrek became stressed and released his purple ink. He
then crawled behind some rocks and I was unable (as of now) to get a
photo. Earlier today, the worm was not on him, so I'm wondering if
he picked up something from within the live rock. I'm paranoid.
I'd be devastated if Shrek was being harmed by this creature and
have searched the web for the last few hours trying to find info as to
what it may be and what I should do. Your suggestions would be greatly
appreciated. Jill
<Mmm, could you send a well-resolved image along? Bob Fenner>
Sea Hare death(s) 04/14/2008 Thank you for a
wonderful site. I apologize for asking a question when I'm sure the
information I'm looking for is already posted but I seem to be
handicapped in search engines as they always seem to return matches
where every single word is accurate, yet somehow out of context.
<Ah, yes... GIGO... a need/arena for learning the field/terms, use
of Boolean logic... as it applies to such searching perhaps> I have
a 90 gallon marine tank FOWLR containing a Yellow Tang, Blue Tang,
Coral Beauty, Six line Wrasse, 2 percula Clowns and 3 blue/green
Chromis. I started seeing string hair algae of the kind no fish eats
(naturally) and by the time I recognized I had a "problem"
rather than a simple "event" the algae had taken a pretty
strong hold. I corrected the problem (phosphates and a bit of
overfeeding) but the algae remained. On the advice of a local pet store
I purchased two sea hares <Mmm, what species? Too often cold-water
species are offered...> and they went to work immediately! Not only
were they in the process of cleaning the tank nicely but I've
decided that they are at LEAST as interesting as any fish, so I was
looking forward to a long an happy relationship. I came home from work
one day to find one of them dead .... with a huge split right up the
center of his back, all the way from the vent hole to the neck. Without
a picture the best way I could describe it would be if you could
imagine a pressure split along the seam of a plastic bag as opposed to
any sort of gash from an attach or contact damage. I took him back to
the store to see if they could explain what went wrong and they said
... stop me if you've heard this before ... they've never seen
that before, never heard of that before, can't imagine any animal
or event that caused that and would I like to buy a replacement?
<Mmmm...> (um ... not at this time, thank you). Two weeks later
the remaining Hare was busy at work at 10 am and dead of the same cause
at 2pm. The precision of the split (no rough edges at all) and the
symmetry of it (right down the center of the back) as if sliced with a
scalpel are very troubling. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you, Gil
(not a pun!) <A need for a ready identification. Please read here:
http://wetwebmedia.com/seaslugid.htm I suspect you have/had
non-tropical species... that don't live in warm settings. Bob
Fenner>
Dead sea hare problem? -01/30/08 I have a
large sea hare and I think it might have died because I have not seen
it in about 3 days. Here is the real kicker the tank at this point no
reaction as far as water quality. <It's possible it's not
dead, possible it is dead but simply not toxic... maybe consumed by
something else... hard to say.> Should I wait a while and give him a
chance to show him self or should I go and look for him. <That's
really up to you, but I would. Sara M.>
| Several reef questions-LTA, Sea Hare, etc...
pre-eminent crash, reading, reading and understanding
01/22/2008 Hello WWM Crew, This is the first time I've
asked a question and I must apologize up front, but this may be a
long email. <No worries. Take your time> I'm sending a
link with photos of my tank for you information. Before I ask my
questions, I will tell you about the tank. It is a 34 gallon Red
Sea Max system. We purchased it from our LFS on their
recommendation. <What do you think of this (new) product?
Craftsmanship? Value?> We now know it is more difficult to keep
a smaller tank and we plan on moving in 6 months, at which time we
will be getting a much larger tank. In the meantime, we need some
advice on how to best care for our little creatures. In the tank we
currently have two Ocellaris Clowns (one male and one female),
yellow-tail Damselfish, Pajama Cardinal, 4-5 Nassarius snails, 3
small turbo snails, 1 fire/cleaner shrimp, Sandsifting starfish,
Blue Tuxedo Sea Urchin, Sea Hare (that I've been unable to
accurately identify), <Mmmm> Long Tentacle Anemone,
<Yikes...> 1 mid-size red legged hermit crab, 3 smaller
red-legged hermits, 1 very small emerald crab, a green star polyp
coral, 2 very small sea mushroom coral (one of which is attached to
what I was told to be "leather finger"), 2 other small
soft corals that I can't seem to remember the name of at the
moment but I believe to be pineapple/brain coral, and another
Favites coral that is not in any photos because we just purchased
it. According to yesterday's tests, water quality as follows:
Temp: 78 Specific Gravity: 1.023-1.024 Calcium: 460 PH: 8.2
Phosphate: .1 Ammonia: 0-.15 <I do hope this is an anomalous
reading... test kit artifact. This needs to be zero> Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: .05. <Ditto> We are aware that we need excellent
water quality but we were told by our LFS that our levels were fine
for us and we've NEVER had Ammonia at 0. Oh, the tank is fairly
new, started in late October 2007. OK, so on to my questions. When
we first put the LTA in our tank 2 weeks ago, we placed in where it
is located in the photos and it remained there for a little over a
week. Just the other day it began to move about. <An
"unhappy" behavior> I looked up how to help it settle
and tried moving it to a location and feeding it 1/2 of a
Silverside. <...> It stayed there for 2 days and then began
to roam again. I did the same thing again and it stayed for only
1/2 day and not it's roaming around again. I know that an
unattached anemone is an unhappy anemone but I can't understand
what more I need to do to help it find a home. <The other
cnidarians... the Polyps, Corallimorphs...> When I found it
yesterday morning it was sucked onto the sea urchin and I moved it
because I didn't think that was a particularly good thing. I
thought maybe our substrate wasn't appropriate but the LFS
assures me it's fine. How long should I expect it to roam
around the tank? <Not much longer... as it will be dead...
perhaps the rest of your livestock with it> Should I right it if
it's upside down? <Tentacle side up... and place a
"strawberry basket or such over it> Based on the photos,
can you recommend an appropriate placement that I could try?
<... in looking at this animal, considering your system... I
would remove, return it to your LFS. This specimen is very badly
bleached (dying from a lack of zooxanthellae... which give it
color... and nutrition) and your system does not have sufficient
quality or quantity of light to support such an organism... Please
read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/macrodoreensis.htm and the linked
files above> I'll be getting a net today to try that
technique mentioned on your site. It's tentacles are usually
out while it's roaming around, is this a sign of good health?
<No my friend> Next question: The sea hare that I can't
identify fell onto the anemone the other day. <Very bad...>
Should I be worried about the anemone stinging it? <Yes... and I
suspect this is not a tropical animal... See here:
http://wetwebmedia.com/seaslugid.htm re this Aplysia> I moved
the sea hare when I saw it. What exactly happens to a marine animal
if/when it gets stung by an anemone? <Too much to relate to you
here... but is recorded on our site, elsewhere> Will I be able
to identify if has happened? <This animal needs to be removed as
well... is also mis-placed here> The sea hare was purchased less
than a week ago and it's laid eggs on the side of the aquarium
walls twice. <Stress... reproducing before it dies...> Should
I clean this up or leave it alone (none of the aquarium inhabitants
attempted to eat it). <Should be removed> The mushroom coral
in the photo was purchased at the same time as the LTA. <...>
It was open and appeared happy for several days. We added
phytoplankton to the tank <Nothing you list actually eats
this...> the day we got it and then forgot to refrigerate it so
we didn't add any more until a week ago. It had shriveled up
but the opened back up when we added the phytoplankton (which we
were told to add 3 times a week). We also have been instructed to
add 1 squirt of Arctipods once a week. Now the mushroom is
shriveled again and has been for 2 days. Is this normal or is this
a sign of bad health? If it's a sign of bad health is there
anything I can do to help it? <... my friend... you need to
read... And STOP buying "things", livestock...> Two
more quick questions and them I'm done, I promise. We don't
have an RO/DI filter yet (we won't be able to have one until we
move) so we've been using Distilled water in the meantime.
Since we've never had super great water quality, is this a
contributing factor? <Not much> Is there anything we can to
do help get the ammonia to 0 (Oh, I forgot, we add Amquel 1x/week)?
<... this may be giving you a false positive...> Besides
adding PH 8.2 to the distilled water, should I be doing something
else? <Reading> Last question. I now know that our clowns
don't naturally host with a LTA but is there a possibility that
this might happen? <... reading> Is there anything I can do
to help this process (besides a home for the LTA)? I know that they
can survive without each other but it would be nice if they would
pair, besides, the clowns have taken up residency in the little
cave in our tank that was home to the shrimp. Now we hardly see the
shrimp because it appears to have been pushed out of it's home
by the clowns. It would be nice to be able to give it back it's
home. Thank you for you wonderful site. I've learned a lot
(much of which has come after making this purchase and had I known
better would have made different choices). I've looked on your
site for answers to my questions and I often see that you refer
people to "read wetwebmedia.com about your question". If
you are going to refer me to an article, can you please give me a
link or please be very specific about the location of the article
because I sometimes have difficulty navigating your site. Thank
you, again. http://www.sendpix.com/albums/08012114/2t2jg47po0/ Link
to photos of our tank Lynda Hounshell <Read and heed the
above... and then, keep reading... Do NOT buy anything more w/o
researching for yourself ahead of time. What you have now will very
likely "crash" soon... You need to ACT with knowledge...
ASAP. Bob Fenner> |
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Help! Dead sea hare, wilting LTA, high nitrates
11/08/07 Hello WWM, I hope you guys can help, I have searched your
site and can not find anything near what happened to my aquarium today.
I have a 75 gallon with the two clowns, LTA, a yellow tail damsel,
Chromis, royal Gramma, snowflake eel, choc chip star, and Bahamian
star. <What species is this last?> Everybody has been living
together peacefully for 3 months. The system has been running for 6
months. I have 3 powerheads, 75-80 lbs live rock, crushed coral as
substrate. On Sunday I added a sea hare <...? What species? Many
sold are coldwater> to help control some algae. Today I can home
from work to find him sucked into one of my powerheads, and my CC star
eating him!!! <... not uncommon> I got the CCstar off and took
the powerhead and sea hare out. I was unable to completely get the sea
hare out of the powerhead so I just threw the powerhead out so I
wouldn't contaminate my tank by putting it back in. <?!> I
immediately checked all my levels and found my nitrates had risen. 2
days ago my nitrates were 0 and now they are at 10ppm. My ammonia was 0
two days ago, now it seems to be between 0 and 0.25.(which I expected
to rise due to a dead critter) Nitrates:0 Phosphorus:0 pH: 8.2 specific
gravity: 1.023 <I'd raise this...> I am assuming I need to do
a water change, however will be unable to until tomorrow. I just did a
water change a week ago so I don't have any RO/DI water on hand.
(lesson learned about having reserve water!) When I got home my LTA was
spread out and looked perfectly happy. Now, about an hour after I
removed the powerhead and dead sea hare I noticed my LTA has begun to
wilt and start to deflate. Everybody else seems perfectly happy in the
tank, at this time. I have not fed the tank or done anything else to
it. Am I just overreacting to my LTA's behavior? Could it possibly
miss the powerhead? Or is it due to the sea hare disaster? <Much
more likely the two former...> What is the best thing I could do
right now? PLEASE HELP!!! Thank you for all your wonderful help and
wonderful site. ~Michelle <Welcome. I would do nothing overt here.
Likely all will be fine. I'd clean up and return the powerhead. Bob
Fenner>
Sea Hare Splitting? 10/23/06 Hi WWM crew, <Hello Ryan>
I have a 35 gallon saltwater tank. There is a Coral Beauty, orange star
fish, three crabs, and a Sea Hare. I woke up this morning and I saw my
Sea Hare's skin splitting down the middle. There was something that
looked like a white larva where the skin split. I took out the Sea Hare
and moved it to a quarantine tank, because I heard they can kill your
other fish when they die. <Indeed.> It hasn't moved around in
the quarantine tank so I think it's dead. Do you have any idea of
why it did this, or how I can prevent it in the future? <Most Sea
Hares, if not all, are very difficult to keep. Should only
be attempted by expert aquarists. They do not appreciate
bright light and are algae grazers. I'm quite sure none
of these conditions exist in your tank. Try something a
little more easier to keep in the future.> Thanks for your reply!
<You're welcome. James (Salty Dog)> Ryan
Forsman
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