Sea Hare hiding in Sand Bed?

Hey everyone,

So i bought this massive sea hare yesterday and its awesome. This particular sea hare is very healthy and eats like hell. I got permission to get one from the pet stores show tank, and its an awesome little guy. But this morning when i turned the lights on he had buried himself into the sand. I can actually see his head on the glass underneath the sand. I dont know if this is a normal behaviour for sea hares, but he doesnt want to go out. I used a LONG time acclimating this guy, carefully. When he came into the tank he was doing fine, and he was eating a little bit of hair algae. My bicolor angelfish or my clarkii clownfish have never touched him either. So that got me thinking, is it some normal behaviour that sea hares have? The particular species is Dolabrifera sp.

 

iv read they are crazy hard to keep and can cause issues with water quality if bullied, hence the need for a really good filtration system. i know they graze on open sand bends but not sure if the burrow inside them. if this was my critter it would be one of the few i would target feed. if you only recently got him he is probably still acclimating. how long did the fish store have him before he sold it to you?

 

Moved to-----Inverts.

 

For some months. He liked to use them for cleaning algae in his show tank. He had 3 of them. Yes some species of sea hares are very sensitive to bullying, although these fellows are very hardy. They dont require alot of things like other sea hares does. He told me that he have NEVER had any problems with sea hares being toxic and nuking a tank in his 36 years of experience in the saltwater hobby. He have only kept this species of sea hare though. So they are pretty hardy inverts. It wont nuke the tank, that for sure. But it just dug itself down the sand bed, down know if its a normal behaviour :S

 

What are you going to feed this sea hare?

In a small newer tank it will starve unless you can meet it's nutritional needs. You can try algae waffers.

It very well might contribute to a significant and drastic decline in water quality if it does die in a smaller tank.

In my opinion you probably need to find a different local fish store, if this is the same local fish store that sold you the Sebae anemone. There seems to be a trend happening, you are stocking your nano tank with live stock that should only go into an established tank. Twenty gallons of water is a very small amount of water and very unstable even for experienced hobbyist.

My suggestion is to look into getting a larger tank, stick with soft corals and hardy lps, easy fish and to avoid the more sensitive inverts for the first 6-12 months.

When I started this hobby going to the local fish store was like going to the candy store. I was in awe of all the fascinating corals/inverts and fish. I soon learned that regardless of my experience level or the size and age of my tank the local fish store dealers encouraged me to buy animals and products that were not appropriate. I so wanted that nautilus and those difficult types of anemones and sea horses.

" Only bad things happen fast in this hobby" and " Nothing good happens fast".

 

Its not the same fish store. The sebae is still alive and is eating, healthy and growing. So i honestly think that sebae anemones are easy to keep. They are EXTREMELY easy to keep if you get a clownfish for them. If you get a clownfish, it will have a very big chance of survival, since it will help it get along, and will feed it aswell. So its not true what you say. Sps can be kept easily if you just got good lighting and good water quality, which isnt so hard if you dont overstock. My tank got so many algae that its almost incredible. So the sea hare gets plenty of food. Sea hares arent sensitive its just a dumb reputation that they got from years back in the hobby, where we couldnt keep anything. The sea hare will get fed with kelp from a refugium, since kelp is one of the only things they want to eat other than hair algae, caulerpa and bryopsis. What you state is not true. A nano tank is not hard to keep if you do regular water changes. This way you will make sure that your tanks calcium, magnesium, potassium, iodine, and lots of other trace elements will stay in tact. The reason people have difficulty keeping nanos is because they dose alot of stuff and never do waterchanges. In a nano tank you HAVE to make waterchanges, cause nitrates will stay incredibly high if not done. I have no interest in a larger tank, since i better like nano systems. The fish store you are talking about having "No experience" is probably one of the most experienced you'll ever meet. He said "In my experience, sebae anemones are not hard to keep, if you just remember to add things slowly and remember to feed it" And its true, cause i followed his advice and the anemone succesfully attached itself to a rock and its eating alot and is healthy. I have actually seen it grow. I tried following other peoples advice "Try putting it down in the sand". Stuff like that doesnt work, it just stresses it out. Sea hares are not hard to keep. These animals are capable of many things that other mollusks cant. For example, it might tumble over, but it can easily get itself back up again, where for example other snails cant. This store is not a regular fish store. Yes some fish stores try to sell you everything they have. But seriously this guy is trustworthy as hell. He knows alot more about this hobby than many others and he have had 32 years of experience in the saltwater hobby (WHICH IS KIND OF MANY YEARS YOU KNOW?). This guy is the most known guy in the hobby here in Denmark and is the best dealer throughout northern europe. I came out to him to ask him "Can i buy some hermit crabs, turbo snails, tectus snails, nassarius snails, shrimp and starfish to clean my tank with?" And he told me "Hold on! You dont need that yet! You will spend way to many money, and it would not be worth it, cause they wont help at all" and i was like "Okay, what the hell?" then he said "This type of sea hare is very inexpensive and i've had it for a long time, almost 3 months now. He has been eating alot in here, since i have some trouble with hair algae. If you have trouble with hair algae i can tell you this. If you see that your lawn is 5 foot tall, would you go get a lawnmower? No, you wouldnt. You would go get a scythe right? This is the same reason i think you should buy a sea hare" and then i asked "Dont they ink when they get scared?" he said "Yes they will. But people who get them to ink are having so many problems they cant keep anything else either. Cause these sea hares are hardy, and i'm talking from experience. If they would ink, it would only be because of a really big fish would tear it apart, or if your water parameters are so bad, that you wouldnt even could do anything with it. Trust me, i've had these guys for a long time and i've heard people say they ink, but you can even poke them with a stick and it wont hurt them at all" Then he showed me an example of it and he took it up with it hands and sat it on top of the water and then put it down again. Normally people would say that this would cause them to ink. But it didnt. It just continued grazing like nothing ever happend. It didnt even shrink in size or anything. So that with them being sensitive is bullsh*t for saying it correctly.

 

Could you post a pic of your Sabea please

 

So you should probably ask the fish store guy that sold it to you if this is normal behavior.

 

So many things to comment on from this post, but I will be nice. You are making a lot of blanket statements and accusing a very well respected member (especially when it comes to anemones) of not knowing what she is talking about. It is fine to not share the same opinions of someone, but there are ways to go about it that won't cause internet fights, which will just keep any of the experienced members from helping you.

Anyways, I will respond to one of your blanket statements:

I have a 10 gal QT tank that has been setup for about 5 months, and has always had 1-2 fish in it. In those 5 months, I have done two total 1-2 gallon water changes. And these were only done because I had some extra water change water left over. Nitrates are and have been undetectable (using API, which is not the greatest, but will still show down to 5PPM). So here you go, one example of why you can't just say that you HAVE to do this, or HAVE to do that in this hobby. There are always exceptions, especially in this hobby.

Anyways good luck with the Sea Hare. I have no experience with them and so can't offer any advice.

 

While reading about your specific Sea Hare it appears that in the UK it's common to rent them and trade them for algae issue. Perhaps consider or look into returning it or passing it on to another hobbyist once it has taken care of the algae in your tank.

It is a rather unique looking Sea Hare.

I did a simple search on google which produced a couple forums in the UK that address Sea Hares and possible outcomes should they die in a marine aquarium.