HELP!!! My Sea Hare might be dying.

[Agsellers04]

This morning I noticed my sea hare on the floor of the tank motionless. He has a split up his back. He still has all of his coloration. He will not respond to any touch on his body but will respond to touch on his snout or ears. I pulled him out and he does not stink. I just did a water change 2 days ago. parameter are all in good range. there is still plenty of hair algae left for it to eat. He won't stick to anything and kina rolls around. i moved him to a location where he won't be bothered and am monitoring...

Any help I would much appreciate it.

This is a picture of it. It is under a mix of blue and white.

 

[Agsellers04]

One other thing, When I handled the hare it retraced its spikes. I went ahead and moved him into an isolation box (breeder box) and his spines came back out. Also, some sand stuck to his back but his underside is not sticking to anything. His headparts are still reacting to stimulation. It is weird it is just like he is frozen.

 

[rwreef]

List tank parameters. Eating? Lots of food sources ? Tank age?

 

[Agsellers04]

He has been eating, this is the first sign of illness i have seen from him. I have had him about two months.
The tank age is nine months
He has tons of hair algae which is why I got him. He eats the hair algae, he eats algae off the glass, he eats dried seaweed I feed.

Tank params (taken today)

Ammonia - 0
Nitrate and Nitrate - 0
Hardness 450+ ppm
Ph - 8.0
Alk - 10.05
Carbonate - 150 ppm
Chlorine - 0
Temp - 78.5
Phosphorus - 5ppb

 

[Agsellers04]

This is the hare now in his box. I mean he looks fine other than maybe the split in his resr end there.

 

[Agsellers04]

He died overnight. Kinda bummed man...

 

[alimac122]

Build Thread - The Miracle Tank

LOL! Thats good

www.reef2reef.com

Mine also just split today....
did you ever figure out what causes this???

 

[Agsellers04]

I think what killed mine was high phosphates. Mine spiked up to 1.2 and the algae is out of hand. The hare ate enough for about 3 months I think the water chemistry killed it. I didnt lose any other critters but my nem is still a bit stressed but on the healthy side. I think I caught it soon enough thankfully. I just got another one today so I will keep this thread updated.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Others have said that they tend not to live more than a year in an aquarium, and the larger they are when you get them, the 'older' they probably already are. I have owned two myself... fun creatures... but I bought them large and each lived about 3 months, maybe a bit longer. Try a Florida Fighting Conch-- also a lot of fun. Best wishes.

 

[merkmerk73]

Mine died last night. It was big when I got it (saltwaterfish.com lied, said it was 2" or less - it was a 3-4"er).

It had started slowing down a bit, saw it hadn't moved in about 16 hours, pulled it out of the water and it had a faint funky smell and that split in its back

My understanding is once they show that split they're dying and you need to just pull them out and dispose.