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Nassarius Snails attacking Sea Hare?

yellojello

yellojello

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I just bought 5 nassarius snails and a sea hare over the weekend. Today, I saw 4 of the snails eating/cleaning? on the butt of the sea hare. Also, one of my cleaner shrimp was on back in the mix as well. Are they cleaning or attacking/eating him?!

Hmmm... I just moved all the snails to the other side of the tank, but the cleaner shrimp is back, and closer inspection, he is picking inside his @$$hole?!
 
I would isolate it and let it die semi-peacefully.. Getting gnawed on by a snail/eaten alive can't be too fun
 
If a sea hare is "on it's way out" does that mean he's at his end of of life (age?), or stressed out? I guess what I'm asking is if there is a chance he will recover, or certain death?

I put him in the fuge for now.

Sucks, I had a sea hare before and he was so cool and active (gave him away after a few months)... this one wasn't as active, so maybe I got a bad one.
 
yellojello said:
If a sea hare is "on it's way out" does that mean he's at his end of of life (age?), or stressed out? I guess what I'm asking is if there is a chance he will recover, or certain death?

I put him in the fuge for now.

Sucks, I had a sea hare before and he was so cool and active (gave him away after a few months)... this one wasn't as active, so maybe I got a bad one.
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Most likely it's dying as you look at it. May take a couple days but every thing you've said points to the hare dying. Always buy active ones. They are also sensitive so acclimation is key with them IME>
 
99sf said:
Jimmy, is it possible that your sea hare has run out of food?
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They don't starve in just a couple days (just bought it over the weekend), although, the store could have been shy on food as well.

They are very sensitive to acclimation and 9/10 that is the route cause of their demise in the first couple days.
 
Good point. I have heard of sea hares eating green hair algae. I found this article from Advanced Aquarist:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:S3D9dJ0s_CUJ:www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2004/invert.htm+sea+hare+diet&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Has anyone had experiences like this one described in the article?
Some species (e.g., Bursatella) are specialists on microalgae growing on the surface of sand grains, and actually ingest mouthfuls of sand to digest away the cyanobacteria and diatoms growing there. In this sense, they function very much like the popular sand-mopping sea cucumbers known as Tiger-tails (e.g., Holothuria hilla).
 
I've done sea hares. The first one I bought did great for months until he ran out of food. The second and third ones (this is over a long period of time) died within days. The current one was just loaned to John (SFBoarders) because he's done in my tank, needs hair algae to eat and will be happy for a while in John's tank. We should create a chain to rotate our sea hares to tanks that will provide them with stable temperature, PH and plenty of hair algae to eat. When a healthy sea hare is in action, he eats hair algae from one end and poops it out from the other end non-stop. The one that John just took home is reserved to go to Charles when he gets his fill at John's then to whom ever could use him. I picked him up from O.T. about a month ago and it took him about 3 weeks to completely rid my tank of hair algae. BTW when snails get close up and personal with a sea hare, don't worry, they're just trying to mate with it. H) (SWAG scientific wild ass guess)

Note: I'm told that when a sea hare dies in your tank you must remove him within about a day to not have toxins from the dead hare pollute your tank sufficiently to kill livestock. I've not had that happen.
 
Over feeding anything will get the same result as over feeding any phytoplankton product. It's not specific to Phyto-Feast.
 
Screebo, same my first sea hare did well, until I gave him away. This second one didn't do well. Maybe the snails weren't eating him, but mating. 4 snails all over his/her ass, literally.

Anyways, he died in the fuge, didn't have any movement where I dropped him the day before. When taking him out of the tank, I accidentally squeezed a little to hard, and some "ink" (toxic?) squirted out, but after I took him out, I squeezed more a bunch came out onto the napkin. So now I know what it looks like. Don't think its too harmful for 150 gallons of water... makes me wonder about getting a cowfish =P
 
the sea hares we use really aren't toxic. Some can ink a lot and that drops the DO rapidly.

Cowfish when they die do emit toxins IIRC though, entire different ball game.

I need to get permission but my buddy has a photo from his tank of a sea hare (living but on it's way out) with bristle worms living in it's rear end. :*
 
GreshamH said:
the sea hares we use really aren't toxic. Some can ink a lot and that drops the DO rapidly.

Cowfish when they die do emit toxins IIRC though, entire different ball game.

I need to get permission but my buddy has a photo from his tank of a sea hare (living but on it's way out) with bristle worms living in it's rear end. :*
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Gresh, you're gaggin' me! :Sp
 
yellojello said:
Screebo, same my first sea hare did well, until I gave him away. This second one didn't do well. Maybe the snails weren't eating him, but mating. 4 snails all over his/her ass, literally.

Anyways, he died in the fuge, didn't have any movement where I dropped him the day before. When taking him out of the tank, I accidentally squeezed a little to hard, and some "ink" (toxic?) squirted out, but after I took him out, I squeezed more a bunch came out onto the napkin. So now I know what it looks like. Don't think its too harmful for 150 gallons of water... makes me wonder about getting a cowfish =P
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I would not recommend a cowfish because there poison is meant to be toxic not like a sea hares which is just used as a deterrent.
 
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