Naeusu

I had a nasty nasty outbreak of brown algae in my tank....covered everything like an ugly carpet! So I stopped by the not so local store and they advised me to take home this little bundle of odd...

it's a sea hare...looks like a fat glob of black algae until you notice the head...

i think it's kinda cute....

Once it's finished eating all the ugly I've been told I should return him...I was kinda hoping to keep him but I'm not sure what food I'd be able to feed him since I was told he eats nothing but nasty algae... I've had him for about 3 days and the tank is getting very close to clean.....i'll miss the little slug!

iloveengl

lol that's pretty cute. I haven't heard of him before...I'm gonna have to google image search.

Update: I found him! Hahahah He does look like a blob with ears.

This site has some good info for feeding him in the aquarium. Doesn't sound too difficult. Kinda like feeding a snail, really.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...726&pcatid=726

aquatic mouse

This could be why they suggested you bring it back:

If it becomes startled, it may release a purple dye to repel attacking fish. In the home aquarium, the Sea Hare will need a good chemical filter system to quickly remove this toxic dye before it causes problems.
- From Live Aquaria

Still, it's nice they let you borrow him. He is cute.

eiginh

Stating from the site provided frm iloveengl, all you need to do is lettuce and seaweed. You can buy lettuce at any market but for seaweed you can buy it from an asian market if you have one near you. Make sure it's unsalted/unflavored.

That's really nice of the LFS owners to let you borrow him, I don't think any LFS around me will do that.

Naeusu

The fish have been harrassing him slightly but he hasn't done much but eat algae...

However, I noticed what looked like ICH starting on my fish today! They didn't have any nasty spots this morning or in the last couple of months of having the tank....The only factor that's new in the tank is the sea hare! I wonder can sea hares carry ich?

eiginh

Not sure on that! but uh oh!!!! Sorry I don't know how to treat ich in saltwater but if it's the same as freshwater higher up the temp!

smileyfish

is it ich? my fish(tang) just got ich a month or so ago and boy was it annoying! i had to take him out of the tank messing up coral left and right and then watching for 6 minutes him in freshwater (one quick way to get rid of weak ich) and put him back in. Also i had to raise the temperature (82) and lower the salinity (1.019 at very lowest) which the corals didnt agree with. When that didnt work he had to do 4 days of intensive formulin-3 therapy. I had to take a bucket of saltwater out of the tank and put in a proper dose of the formulin and have him swim around in there and then put him back. His fins deteriorated, corals deteriorated, and my patience deteriorated and finally he was better! Now hes back to his happy little self eating a ton. Ich is carried on all living organisms in the sea, from what i understand, but for the mostpart fish are able to become immune to it but when they become stressed or weakened they are more susceptable to it. Overstocking helps ich too whereas if that above statement is true then its more of these carriers packed into a space extremely smaller than the ocean and the parasite supercharges.

Im sure theyll be fine, haha. Hope that wasnt too intense.

Naeusu

I'm not sure if it's ich or not....looks like little white spots but not so severe as the pics of ich that i've seen....also, only two of the fish seem affected and one has no spots on it now and the other is quickly clearing up.

AlexBurnsRed

Sea Hares can't carry ich, but it could have been in the water he came in from.

The pictures of ich on the internet are usually advanced cases. And my Clownfish never showed signs of ich, while my other fish would, and they were all in the same tank, some have higher immunity to it I guess.

If it is ich your best bet is to put your fish in Quarantine with hyposalinity treatment and leave the display tank empty for 8 weeks to ensure the parasite is dead. And UV Sterilizers also help to kill of ich.

And they're cute little creatures, I kind of want one ha.