Neptune Aquatics

DBTC Zombie Sea Hare

glee

glee

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BARcard
not sure if this is the right place for this since it will not reproduce, but it can be passed along to fellow reefers in need of algae control.

this sea hare was purchased a couple weeks ago and has done a great job on my green hair algae and red cotton algae. it is about 4" and burrows itself in my sandbed just before the lights go on and comes out at night to feast.

rules:
1. you must be a BAR member.
2. you must be able to pick up from my place in sf.
3. must bring your own container.
4. must give me priority if i need hair algae removal.
5. must have >-5 dbtc karma.
5. pick a number between 1-10.
 
Thanks to Garvin, I've got the Sea Hare now and keeping it fed.

I have a feeling that he will be through the algae I have pretty quick, so let me know if anyone is interested in this mean algae removing machine.

1. must be a BAR member.
2. must be able to pick up from my place in the Outer Sunset in SF.
3. I'm sure Garvin or I would love to borrow the Sea Hare back if our tanks need additional cleaning.
 
I just picked up the sea hare from Garvin (glee), and am not sure how long it will take to clear up the algaes. But I definitely do not want to see it starves to death in my tank, so I like to line up the next person as soon as possible even though there might be a little waiting time.

Must be a BAR memeber.
Must be able to pick up from my place in Cupertino.

Thanks again Garvin!
 
Start waving good bye to hair algae. Lol. I wonder how many tanks this guy will clean up?

thanks to Steve at Lucky Ocean for getting it in
 
I have some algae, not hair or turf, but it's like longer hard strands, will this guy eat it? If so, I'd love to try it out. Tonggao, you're still in cupertino? My GF lives in Cupertino now so I'm there a lot, when the time comes I could just swing by.
 
Hey Art, I am still in Cupertino. Glad to hear that you finally found your motivation coming down this way. Either you or Drew are welcome to pick it up once I am done with it. I haven't used a flashlight on my tank after lights go off for a while now, yesterday I spent 10 minutes in front of the tank with a flashlight. The sea hare is amazing, it does not even seem to be chewing on the algae, but rather it just suck the algae in. I am having high hopes for it :D.
 
hey tong, what's the status on the HA in your tank? remnants of algae in my tank are starting to come back, so i would like to get the sea hare from you soon.

thanks, garvin
 
Hi Gavin,

The sea hare is working slowly on my algae, and it might take a while to have everything cleaned. I can give it back to you to work on your HA, and I can get a sea hare from another friend soon. LMK and thanks.
 
i can wait another week or two. if you are coming up to sf during this period, let me know. or i will try to get down to your area.
thx
 
Hi Gavin,

The algae in my tank is not going away as fast as I thought, so I bought a small sea hare today that I plan to keep for a while. Unfortunately, I do not have plan going up to SF in near future. If you are coming down, please let me know 2 to 3 days ahead of time so I can fish out your sea hare and put it in the fuge. Or I can ask Arnold to help bringing it up to SF if you can pick it up from him.

Thanks again,
Tong
 
Hey Tong,

I decided to buy a sea hare myself, and he/she seems to be doing a really good job. I got two from LiveAquaria (they shipped two, not sure why). In one night, all my major algae was all gone. It was amazing. Then one of them died a week later, and the other is still doing really well. I think the other one didn't survive the acclimation or something unfortunately.

But since then, the remaining sea hare has definitely slowed down. I feel like they were probably STARVING from when they were held at LA, and feasted like no other when they got to my buffet.

They definitely seem to slow down after a week of grubbing down. At this rate I can probably feed this sea hare indefinitely, as the algae is slightly growing back by the time he gets to them. It's like a perfect balance now. I also have a tiny 2" tuxedo urchin eating up my corraline, too slowly though, but we'll see.

I've seen the sea hare dive into small holes with its butt wagging around in the flow trying to get at algae, it's quite hilarious.

Once in awhile the sea hare will climb up to the water line and just smash into a ball up there for a whole night. I always think it's about to die, but then somehow gets back down off the glass and starts eating again. Probably food coma.

They also don't seem to do too well in high flow, once in awhile the sea hare will start drifting off into the water column!

Funny guy. Super slimy.

Goodluck with yours!

BTW, here's a picture of the skin:
 
Nice post kinetic! Love the description and play-by-play. It makes me want to get one for the hair algae I have, which isn't overgrown, but just a nuisance in some parts of the tank.. It's either a sea hare or yellow tank/ foxface.
 
CookieJar said:
Nice post kinetic! Love the description and play-by-play. It makes me want to get one for the hair algae I have, which isn't overgrown, but just a nuisance in some parts of the tank.. It's either a sea hare or yellow tank/ foxface.
Click to expand...

I'd highly recommend the sea hare =) They're kind of funny to watch, and great conversations stem from people who look at it. If he doesn't get it all, then go for a tang / foxface as well.

I'm hoping I can keep this guy for a long time. The algae is definitely getting plowed.
 
Hey Art,

Thanks for your description. I was wondering what happened to the sea hare, and it is good to get a confirmation of the behavior from you. When I first got it from Gavin, it was eating algae really fast, and it slowed down significantly in a couple of days. Probably due to it was hungry since I barely saw any algae in Gavin's tank at the time. Even though it is an ugly one, it surely is cute like hell to watch. It is especially satisfying to see it grazing on the algaes. My tank has some algae, but is not overgrown either. At this rate, I think I can sustain it indefinitely also. The only thing I am really worried about are my vortechs. But so far i only see Gavin's sea hare climbing onto glass twice.

Is the picture the sea hare's belly or its back? Both gavin's and mine look like really dirty rocks with some algae growing on them on the back :)
 
Tonggao, I had strainers over all my powerhead intakes and that sea hare never really had any issues. Though the strongest powerhead in the fuge was a Maxijet 1200.

He pretty much finished off the algae in my fuge and I was trying to feed it some nori for a few days before I passed him back to Garvin. I'm pretty sure he was relatively hungry since most of the hair algae in my tank had been gone for a week. Unfortunately, I had also pulled out a big bunch of it prior to getting the sea hare.

It has been a few weeks, and (knock on wood) the fuge has stayed relatively hair algae free. I had also removed the Rowaphos that I had in there too, just in case.

I think the best way I have heard is stated is that the sea hare is so far down the spectrum of ugly that it has circled back around to being cute.
 
tonggao said:
Hey Art,The only thing I am really worried about are my vortechs. But so far i only see Gavin's sea hare climbing onto glass twice.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have two vortech's pretty much cranked all the way up, and my sea hare is often on the glass, maybe once a day at least. I'm scared he'll get sucked in, but I think he's pretty aware of flow and will probably turn back if it gets out of control.

tonggao said:
Is the picture the sea hare's belly or its back? Both gavin's and mine look like really dirty rocks with some algae growing on them on the back :)
Click to expand...

It's his back. I've seen other sea hares before, but they never looked so dark. This guy is a really dark color with dark vein like patterns, totally blends into the rock completely.

Doesn't really look like he has algae growing from him, just nice dark rock. Do you have a picture of yours?
 
Hey Garvin, I gave the sea hare to Arnold around 7pm, and you are probably on your way picking it up now. Again, thank Garvin for the sea hare, and thanks Arnold for helping me passing it back.
 
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