Sea Hare Poll

[samwrang]

Thinking of getting a sea hare to clean up some hair algae problems. Want to know what is the general opinion of sea hares amongst members.

[greenbean36191]

Which one? There are about 25 species, at least 8 of them that make it into the hobby. They all have different behavior and diets. The only one I would recommend for hair algae would be Dolabella, and then only if you have a big tank with some way to provide it with a lot of algae after it's cleaned up your hair algae.

[samwrang]

We have a 200g tank. Big enough?

[CarmieJo]

They will eat the HA but you will have to address the cause if you want it to stay away for good. FYI, Sea Hares are known to have pretty short lifespans.

[sarduci]

I used one for my nano and passed it onto another club member. I don't remember exactly what its scientific name was, but the common name was the spotted sea hare.

Great little critter, cleaned out my 12g tank after settling in for three days. It's doing good from what I understand in a 60g frag tank right now.

[serpentman]

I agree with CarmieJo. Getting a sea hare will serve as a bandaid in removing the existing algae. However, long term, finding the cause will be important.