Anyone tried a sea hare?

[Ubergroover]

Hi,
I am contemplating a sea hare for the patches of hair algae the are a constant nuisance. Has anyone ever tried it? Good or bad?

Thanks!

 

[LadyMac]

I have not yet but was told by my lfs they are the best for it. They essentially “ rent” them. You buy it, it eats the algae and you return it or it’ll starve afterwards. I have not researched more on them so couldn’t tell if it’s true or not.

 

[ReefQueen]

I had no luck with them, mine refused to eat HA and eventually perished. A lawnmower blenny and lowering nutrients did the trick though.

 

[Jose Mayo]

Hares of the sea, and other CUC, "trim the grass", but do not eliminate the lawn. All these solutions are aimed at establishing a tolerated balance, or just give the aquarist time to take the necessary steps to adjust their parameters.

Aplysia spp, aka sea hare, becomes a large animal, which needs a good supply of algae to be fed. If are stressed, or feel threatened, or die, can release toxic substances with potential risks to the other animals in the aquarium.

Best regards

 

[Ubergroover]

I had no luck with them, mine refused to eat HA and eventually perished. A lawnmower blenny and lowering nutrients did the trick though.

It is a struggle at times...my no3 po4 levels are zero and .05...head scratcher. I have tried it all. GHA is resilient I'll give it that. I have even taken out every rock and scrubbed it (which was a bad move).

 

[corey01]

I have had a fair handful of them. my experience is they don't do well with water differences. moving from the LFS to my tanks. can float the bag drip acclimate exchange water do it all sorts of ways they don't seem very hardy but its hard to tell if a slug is healthy at a LFS when you get it. however, if it survives you will have on your hands an algae eating monster. that will strip your tank of everything so quickly its alarming. like was posted above you essentially rent them. have it for a few weeks to make sure they ate it all then you pass it along back to your LFS or a friend. I have probably bought...idk 7 of them in my 6ish years doing this. 3 or 4 of them survived the acclimation process and then ate everything in the world. got to the point where I was feeding them algae wafers and sheets to hold them over until I could find a home for them.

 

[Ubergroover]

Hares of the sea, and other CUC, "trim the grass", but do not eliminate the lawn. All these solutions are aimed at establishing a tolerated balance, or just give the aquarist time to take the necessary steps to adjust their parameters.

Aplysia spp, aka sea hare, becomes a large animal, which needs a good supply of algae to be fed. If are stressed, or feel threatened, or die, can release toxic substances with potential risks to the other animals in the aquarium.

Best regards

I have heard that and that is one of the reasons I have never tried them. Thanks!

 

[Ubergroover]

I have had a fair handful of them. my experience is they don't do well with water differences. moving from the LFS to my tanks. can float the bag drip acclimate exchange water do it all sorts of ways they don't seem very hardy but its hard to tell if a slug is healthy at a LFS when you get it. however, if it survives you will have on your hands an algae eating monster. that will strip your tank of everything so quickly its alarming. like was posted above you essentially rent them. have it for a few weeks to make sure they ate it all then you pass it along back to your LFS or a friend. I have probably bought...idk 7 of them in my 6ish years doing this. 3 or 4 of them survived the acclimation process and then ate everything in the world. got to the point where I was feeding them algae wafers and sheets to hold them over until I could find a home for them.

THATS good to know! I am leery of them to begin with because of the whole ink dye/toxins thing.

 

[corey01]

THATS good to know! I am leery of them to begin with because of the whole ink dye/toxins thing.

I have never seen one release ink, and have had several of them die and start to decompose in the tank. I haven't ever noticed any ill effects other than a horrible stink when you pull them out of the water.
but that's not to say there's not any premise to the claims, just that I haven't seen it.

 

[Ubergroover]

I have never seen one release ink, and have had several of them die and start to decompose in the tank. I haven't ever noticed any ill effects other than a horrible stink when you pull them out of the water.
but that's not to say there's not any premise to the claims, just that I haven't seen it.

Fair enough, letting me know that they can be fragile is good to know. My LFS sometimes is out to make a buck first and foremost...Dont blame them but when I want advice I turn to R2R first...

 

[Jose Mayo]

So that there is no doubt ...

Serious scientific works (such as the link I leave below, for example), executed on the ink of Aplysia punctata and others of the same genus, revealed potent toxins, some similar to conotoxins of Conus spp and, still others, with their own mechanism, that act through the induction of enzymatic production of H2O2 in the exposed organism, being able to even kill human tumor cells, which is good, but maybe not good if they are released in an aquarium.

Hydrogen peroxide produced by Aplysia ink toxin kills tumor cells independent of apoptosis via peroxiredoxin I sensitive pathways.

Abstract
"Marine snails of the genus Aplysia possess numerous bioactive substances. We have purified a 60 kDa protein, APIT (Aplysia punctata ink toxin), from the defensive ink of A. punctata that triggers cell death with profound tumor specificity. Tumor cell death induced by APIT is independent of apoptosis but is characterized by the rapid loss of metabolic activity, membrane permeabilization, and shrinkage of nuclei. Proteome analysis of APIT-treated tumor cells indicated a modification of peroxiredoxin I, a cytoplasmic peroxidase involved in the detoxification of peroxides. Interestingly, knockdown of peroxiredoxin I expression by RNA interference sensitized cells for APIT-induced cell death. APIT induced the death of tumor cells via the enzymatic production of H2O2 and catalase completely blocked APITs' activity. Our data suggest that H2O2 induced stress and the modulation of peroxiredoxins might be a promising approach for tumor therapy."

Best regards

 

[Ubergroover]

So that there is no doubt ...

Serious scientific works (such as the link I leave below, for example), executed on the ink of Aplysia punctata and others of the same genus, revealed potent toxins, some similar to conotoxins of Conus spp and, still others, with their own mechanism, that act through the induction of enzymatic production of H2O2 in the exposed organism, being able to even kill human tumor cells, which is good, but maybe not good if they are released in an aquarium.

Hydrogen peroxide produced by Aplysia ink toxin kills tumor cells independent of apoptosis via peroxiredoxin I sensitive pathways.

Abstract
"Marine snails of the genus Aplysia possess numerous bioactive substances. We have purified a 60 kDa protein, APIT (Aplysia punctata ink toxin), from the defensive ink of A. punctata that triggers cell death with profound tumor specificity. Tumor cell death induced by APIT is independent of apoptosis but is characterized by the rapid loss of metabolic activity, membrane permeabilization, and shrinkage of nuclei. Proteome analysis of APIT-treated tumor cells indicated a modification of peroxiredoxin I, a cytoplasmic peroxidase involved in the detoxification of peroxides. Interestingly, knockdown of peroxiredoxin I expression by RNA interference sensitized cells for APIT-induced cell death. APIT induced the death of tumor cells via the enzymatic production of H2O2 and catalase completely blocked APITs' activity. Our data suggest that H2O2 induced stress and the modulation of peroxiredoxins might be a promising approach for tumor therapy."

Best regards

interessante, obrigado!

 

[reefndude]

For me my best hair algae fighters are Mexican turbo snails and my foxface. They have done a good job of keeping the rocks clear of it. I do have some that grow on the power heads both pick at it. The center brace also sags and is in the water. Gha grows there too. Foxface swims and grazes on that as well

 

[addicted4life]

I owned a sea hare, bought it just for an algae breakout a few years ago. I loved him! He grazed on the algae until it was gone. Keep in mind you will need to watch out for any death traps, open power heads, overflows, etc that he may get caught up in. One vote here for sea hares doing a darn good job on hair algae. Once my algae was gone I rented him out to another fellow reefer, who somehow killed him.
Mr. Squishy was his name

 

[addicted4life]

oops double post