Sea Hare?

[Jer-]

Hi everybody

I was wondering if anyone can ID this little slug of mine please, I have always thought it is a Sea Hare, but online photos look different from him... or her.

Here are some fotos.

Thanks

ps, this slug came along as a hitch-hiker on my LR. It was less than 3mm when i first saw it and now it is just a bit less than 2cm.

 

[SkiFletch]

WOW, looks just like a Sea Hare. Never heard of one of those as hitchikers though . Fantastic algae eaters IMO. Theres a couple things to keep in mind with sea hares. #1, have all powerhead inlets covered with a foam pad to keep the soft-bodied hare out of the inlet strainer (they get sucked in and killed). #2, IF it inks, you'll have to either do a large water change or run a protein skimmer to remove the ink. The ink itself (contrary to popular belief) is not toxic but if theres enough of it in a small tank it can black out light used by photosynthetic organisms . #3, It will bulldoze frags and small rocks that are not glued down.

 

[Jer-]

Thanks Ski

Can I please get an ID on the... um... whats it called, species too?

like, what kinda Sea hare it is, cos like i mentioned, it was quite hard for me to match mine with any fotos of sea hares on the net.

Sea Hares get quite large yes?

one time I was making sure if it was a sea hare by gently (only gently) poking it with the algea scraper to see if it will release some dye, but nope, no dye... is that normal?

Thanks

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, very normal. You REALLY have to disturb them to get them to ink. They have to feel genuine injury to do it usually. I've tried to get them to ink in the wild and its really tough. There are 2 basic types of sea hares, dwarf and giant. I unfortunately do not know how to tell which is which though. Dwarfs get about 5" max while Giants can get 12"-16" max in the wild. Whether they get that big in an aquarium isnt well known.

 

[Jer-]

Thanks

maybe i should try poking it harder...haha...

hmm...

thanks again