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ReefFan

Advanced Reefer
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Sea Hares for many reason seem to meet thier demise in the most unexpected ways. Ive lost 3 of them in my first year of reefing. First one just vanished, I searched hi and low for week for him and after still looked around when rocks were moved around.

The 2nd one vanished after becomming the size of baseball, biggest Sea Hare id ever seen cuz he slithered over the divider into my macro fuge and had an absolute feast for a week. He was dropping logs of poop all over the fuge so I put him back in the MT where he vanished. He was later found under a rock. Seems when my rock wall fell down he got pinched and stuck between two rocks and decayed there for months. Suprisingly the system continuted to thrive, including a Moorish Idol, while a large corpse decomposed. In fact theres still pieces of the thing embedded to the underbelly of the big rock lol.

And as I recently mentioned, the 3rd got some kind of 2 inch worm borrow straight through his head to the other side. Kinda looked like those gag arrows you buy to look like you were shot by Robin Hood.

I did buy a 4th yesterday though. This one is the black with blue spots kind with frilly horns or spikes. They move much slower but look cooler. I dont think these type have the appetite of the brown ones but he seems to love glass despite it being freshly mag-floated and placed right amongst the tufts of leafy turf I intented him to eat. Seems the great deal I got at Aqua Hut (3 for $10) on Emerald Crabs has claimed this small area and are trimming it slowly but surely.

Anyway, he'll probably find himself in the Mt soon. I think its a very cool animal even if you arnt in serious need of algae control. Will be keeping an eye on him daily this time and make sure there are no more rock work collapses ;)

Sorry bout your other Sea Hare man. They are my favorite means of algae control but have a habit of dying in ways youd least expect.
 
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ReefFan

Advanced Reefer
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Sorry for your loss. I thought that they could wipe out a tank with toxins when/if they died in a tank?


Id heard that too, but mine did not. I had to fight some algae, very minor problem though with your staple reef cleanup crew. But I never got a very bad bloom until I pulled a large rock out of my DSB and released all that nitrogen. To make matters worse I did a water change with RO that was sitting in a tub for 2 weeks only partially covered. Turned out that water tested 76 tds.

Honestly Ive gone way overboard with filtration for my system though. Very large refugium that adds 55 gallons to the system, and very powerful downdraft skimmer and a 55 gallon sump full 3/4s with LR. So its not your run of the mill 75 gallon tank, in anyone elses tank perhaps it would crash it if left in there to decay. The reason for the extra duty filtration is eventually the plan is to plug a 240 gallon tank into the system, once I get it polished.

Sorry for your loss Jcolon. We all learn lessons the hard way at one time or another. I havnt met anyone in reefkeeping who hasnt. Best of luck with the replacement Hare. BTW the brown ones do a better job at algae eating, but the black ones are cooler lookin IMO.
 

reseter5

Experienced Reefer
Location
forked river nj
Rating - 100%
10   0   0
damn.. that sucks... i lost a big purple tip to a tunze once... the anemone decided to let go and drift to a new spot only to be sucked in... and it expanded and sucked in so much i had to cut it off.. i feel your pain.. poor seahare
 

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