dolabella sea hare

[Mjrenz]

For some reason I can't seem to keep a sea hare alive. Yesterday was my 4th attempt since I lost the last one about 4 months ago and the longest I've been able to keep one alive is about 2 weeks, there's plenty for them to eat. The tank he was in had nearly identical water parameters to my tank but I still drip acclimated him for an hour and then set him loose last night. As soon as I set him on the rock he was gobbling up the algae but this morning he's already turning white so I'm pretty sure he's dead. I'm at a loss as to why I can't seem to keep a creature that's supposed to be easy alive, I have no problems with snails and hermits (except for them killing each other). All my shrimp, corals, fish, and my maxima clam are thriving. My tank has been set up for over a year and my water parameters stay pretty stable and are :

Salinity 1.025
Ph 8.2
Nitrate 0
Phosphate .08
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1340
Kh 9.4
Temp 79

I used the api test strip to check the nitrate but I'm sure it's not completly 0 because my acropora is colored up nicely and growing well. I use salifert kits for kh, calcium, and magnesium and a Hanna ulr for phosphate

Any ideas?

 

[Big G]

Bump

 

[Mjrenz]

I haven't had any responses to this yet but I think I may have figured out why I can't keep one alive. I have noticed that at some point after introducing each sea hare that my skunk cleaner shrimp would start aggressively cleaning it but then I found this old thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/killer-cleaner-shrimp.296252/
@ngoodermuth, I noticed that you had commented on this thread. I never thought about a cleaner shrimp as being a threat to anything in the tank before. It's been a while now but I have noticed that I've lost a couple new fish in the past who appeared quite healthy when I got them but died shortly after a cleaner shrimp jumped on them and started cleaning their gills. Is it possible that the shrimp may have damaged the gills killing the fish also?

 

[ngoodermuth]

I think it would be unlikely for a cleaner shrimp to kill a fish... were the fish QT’d prior to introduction?

I do however think they will and can go after anemones and other soft-fleshy invertebrates. I saw it first hand with that carpet nem! Now, the nem wasn’t “healthy” to begin with and died even after antibiotic treatment... so maybe the shrimp could recognize that it was dying and was trying to “scavenge” before it actually was deceased? I’m not really sure...

 

[ngoodermuth]

Do you have any wrasses or other fish that are known to test cleanup crew? When my tank was going through the uglies I added a few lettuce nudibranch, and they did well - even found a few babies! At the time, my tank was running fallow...

Added all my fish (mostly wrasses) back in, and they disappeared pretty quickly...

 

[Mjrenz]

I didn't qt the fish, I was fairly new back then and didn't know anything about it. They looked healthy but it seemed like it was almost immediately after the shrimp was digging in their gills that they were laying on the sand gasping.

I searched for other instances of cleaner shrimp harming sea hares but couldn't find much

 

[Mjrenz]

Do you have any wrasses or other fish that are known to test cleanup crew? When my tank was going through the uglies I added a few lettuce nudibranch, and they did well - even found a few babies! At the time, my tank was running fallow...

Added all my fish (mostly wrasses) back in, and they disappeared pretty quickly...

I do have one small six line wrasse and a long nose hawk fish but I didn't observe either of them picking on the sea hare

 

[ngoodermuth]

I wouldn’t put it past a 6-line, they are pretty efficient hunters....

 

[ngoodermuth]

I didn't qt the fish, I was fairly new back then and didn't know anything about it. They looked healthy but it seemed like it was almost immediately after the shrimp was digging in their gills that they were laying on the sand gasping.

I searched for other instances of cleaner shrimp harming sea hares but couldn't find much

I’m thinking it’s more likely that they had parasites in the gills that were already causing damage long before the shrimp got there... the shrimp were probably trying to clear out the carnage and just went a little overboard... they are definitely opportunistic.

 

[Mjrenz]

I wouldn’t put it past a 6-line, they are pretty efficient hunters....

The six line is a rather new addition and wasn't even in the tank when I lost the other sea hares. The only consistent link I can think of with all of them is the cleaner shrimp