Types of Sea Hare?

Lylelovett · Apr 11, 2020

Good morning all,

I'm considering a Sea Hare to combat algae in my 150g. I have seen different ones for sale, sepcifically Dolabella, and one called Aplysia. Does anyone know the differences? Is one "better" than the other?

Thanks!

mtfish · Apr 11, 2020

Not sure what species of Aplysia is for sale, but the ones we have along the Texas coast I see mostly swimming around the bays. They get rather large and will squirt a purple "dye" in the water if disturbed enough. I would think this animal would starve in most aquariums. So if you were to get one or the other, my vote would be for Dolabella. My actual vote would be to get some type of sea urchin, as I think it would be better at what you want it to accomplish.

X-37B · Apr 11, 2020

I have a dolebella in my 120. Its the one you want. Mine has been in there for a week and noticable algae removal.

TrishK · May 31, 2020

Dolebella....ours is HUGE now and we’ve only had him 2 months. He’s quite careful with our coral and rarely knocks anything off. He eats and eats and eats....we always have nori and algae out for our other fish so he probably eats some of it too. Here’s a picture of him from last night. He was about the size of a 50 cent piece when we got him now almost baseball sized!!! We have a 180G

second picture is him only a month ago so he’s changed a lot in 30 days.

Lylelovett · May 31, 2020

I've got massive chaeto growing, a media reactor, food into the tank is low, I've got an abalone in there somewhere, regular water changes, etc... And I am still battling hair algae.

I THINK it might be getting some spill-over from some skylights kind of nearby.

Rather than run a continual low dose of fluconazole I've been thinking about getting a hare... The few "horror" stories of purple dye is my only concern to overcome.