Green Sea Hare

[dixaisy930]

at floridapets.com, they have small green sea hares. I'd like to get one, but I am afraid of thier tank nuking possibilities. They are 1 inch long 3/4 inch wide. Has anyone ever kept sea hares (or the green ones atleast)? Do they eat hair algae? Thanks

 

[bvillalta]

I myself have picked up a sea hare just for that reason. I had a huge algae problem in my tank. Not sure if it was called hair algae, but it was brown in color and it did resemble hair in a way. The sea hare did a great job with eating up all the algae, although it did have help from a couple of turbo snails. All in all it was a great addition to my small, though effective, clean up crew.

I can tell you this..try and keep him away from an anemone if you have one. The demise of my sea hair came in part from my anemone that I had in the tank. When I pulled it from the tank to examine it, he had a blue tentacle hanging on the side of his head. My guess is the hare got curious and poked around at the anemone. Just a warning!

 

[SkiFletch]

No worries about them nuking a tank. When my first sea hare (General Xavier may he rest in peace) perished my tank was not affected. My skimmer did end up picking up his ink, but everything else in the tank is fine. In addition to anemones, beware any powerheads. Their inlets MUST be covered in foam, cause the sea hare WILL get curious and get sucked into it.

 

[dixaisy930]

Would a net around the intake work? I've used nets from the cheap green fish nets you can buy (I just cut the net off of the handle). Would this work, or would the holes be too big?

I don't have a protein skimmer, and the tank is only 29 gallons. Would this be a problem?

 

[SkiFletch]

A net would be fine if you ask me. As to the tank size and lacking a skimmer, I dont think either would be a problem so long as you have significant hair algae. The real risk of having one in such a small tank is that it eats itself to starvation. But you can always re-home it or trade it back in to the LFS once it eats all your algae . Its really tough to get them to ink and even if they do, there's probably enough water volume in a 29g where it wont be a problem. Slow water changes will remove it over time and it will probably also decompose on its own since its a dissolved organic.

I'd be a little wary about adding one if you have lots of SPS corals in the tank that dont tolerate organics well, but then again, I'd also be wary about having SPS without a skimmer (sea hare or no sea hare) . If you've got softies or LPS you should be fine.

 

[dixaisy930]

Thanks, the sea hare I'm interested is so small, I'm sure my hair algae would last him a long time. Do they eat macro at all? I have quite a bit of macro in there as well, which I wouldn't mind him eating, because it seems to grow just as fast as the hair.

 

[SkiFletch]

Mine eats my chaeto when I put him in the sump... They live amongst shallow coastal waters where there are macroalgaes and kelp everywhere so I'd say yeah, he'll prolly eat your macro . And dont underestimate their appetite

 

[dixaisy930]

I just thought of my blue leg crab and scarlet hermit crab. Do you think they would pose a threat to the sea hare?

 

[SkiFletch]

Oh, nah, they dont bother sea hares, or at least mine dont. Heck, sometimes my wrasse eats his slime excretions and that doesnt bother him either...

 

[hubbard_shark]

since we're on the topic of hair algae, besides sea hares, wat else is good to buy to eat this stuff? theres much in my tank, but basically walls of it in my refugium.

 

[dixaisy930]

As far as I know, there is no ones animal that will definately eat hair algae. I know quite a few people have luck with emerald crabs, but not everyone gets a good hair algae eater. I think maybe turbo snails may eat it as well. I think my pincushion urchin eats it, a little. Not 100% sure on that though. It sure finds something in my tank great~it's grown like a weed since I've had it. I've had it about six months, and it went from the size of a golf ball, to almost tennis ball size.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, not many organisms purely pray on hair algae... I've done lots of research on the options and here's what I've found:

Sea Hares
- great appetite for hair algae
- gotta have powerheads covered and be prepared for them bulldozing corals

Tangs
- decent appetite for it
- require a big tank (75+ gallons)

Foxface
- Decent appetite
- some wont touch the stuff
- require a big tank (75+ gallons)

Urchins
- Great appetite
- also eats coraline which some people like
- risk to rock stacks not held together with glue/putty and may tumble them

Tubo snails
- poor appetite
- very very hit and miss (most dont eat it)
- best bet are the BIG mexican turbos
- can be rock bulldozers

Lawnmower Blenny
- decent appetite
- somewhat hit or miss on whether they eat your hair algae
- rarely nip at SPS

Hectors Goby
- good appetite for hair algae
- low metabolism (they dont eat hair algae all that fast)
- prefer to eat close-trimmed hair algae, not the long stuff.