Advice on sea hare

[Frenchie2]

I am contemplating getting a sea hare temporarily for my 90G tank as I have hair algea on a few rocks. Will the sea hare be safe with 2 cleaner shrimps, a fire shrimp, and a pistol shrimp in the tank? Will it get bugged by crabs? Please advise. Thanks much!

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Sea hares are ok, try to get some mexican turbo snails if you can. 6 can clean your tank in a few days, and stay in after all the HA is gone, unlike the Sea Hare.

Ken - BWA

[naesco]

Originally Posted by BlueWorldAquatic

Sea hares are ok, try to get some mexican turbo snails if you can. 6 can clean your tank in a few days, and stay in after all the HA is gone, unlike the Sea Hare.

Ken - BWA

You are right. You have to return the sea hare you borrow before it has finished all the algae.

But please tell me what the 6 mexican turbo snails that polish off the algae in a 90 gallon tank eat when all the algae is gone.
IMO they will starve too. There is nothing left to eat.

A sea hare take the algae down to the roots and will even pull most of them out as it eats they are very good at what they do but this is also why they will starve. snails eat what is on top and if it is to long they will leave it be unlike a sea hare. and 6 turbo snails in a 90g will not be enough in my opinion I had 6 in a 55g and had to add more snails. I didn't add any to my tank when I up graded because there is a hundred or so steminila snails on the rocks that has lessened Carpet Nem ate them quite often. If you get a sea hare let it do its thing for a week or so and pass it on or return to the store. do not keep it to long it will starve and die then it will nuke your tank.

Bill

[BlueWorldAquatic]

The herbivore Mexican turbo snail feeds on algae, including hair algae, cyanobacteria and diatoms, and is therefore a popular addition to marine aquariums with algae problems since it will devour algae types shunned by many other algae-eaters.

The Mexican turbo snail will remove algae from various surfaces, including live rock, corals and aquarium glass. It will also sift through the substrate, which is beneficial since it helps to keep the substrate aerated.

The Mexican turbo eats using its radula; a type of tongue with a rasp like texture. As the snail proceeds over a surface, the raspy radula efficiently do away with even really hard-to-remove algae types. The Mexican turbo snail prefers to eat when the aquarium is dark.

The Mexican turbo snail is a veracious eater and even a severely algae infested aquarium can be cleaned in a fairly short period of time, especially if you get several snails. You should therefore be prepared to supplement the naturally occurring food sooner or later; otherwise your snails might starve. You can for instance serve your snail dried seaweed sheets.

Ken - BWA