Blue Dot Sea Hare

We recently purchased a Blue Dot Sea Hare (Bursatella Leachii). The first day we couldnt find it in the tank, but today when I got home it was attached to our MagnaFloat.

I carefully moved the float, and the hare had a long yellowish strand come from behind its head on its back strung on the float.

There was a pile of this "stuff" on the float and a long strand connecting the hare to it.

Does anyone know what this is??? Is it harmful, because the clown fish ended up biting at it and breaking the strand!

 

I just saw a picture of that same yellow stringy stuff taken by another member and it turned out to be eggs from the sea hare. I'm not sure if they're viable yet but maybe yours will be. Also, the sea hare needs to eat nori strips, they are vacuum cleaners in the food department, I'd say watch to make sure it eats well, they tend to starve easily, I learned the hard way with mine after it ate all the hair algae in tank. Happy reefing!

 

and if thats the case with eggs , definitely want to keep it alive for the free food for the fish also. a little caviar perhaps . lol

 

When sea cucumbers are threatened they expel their intestines.

 

is that kinda along the lines of "s****ing" ones pants?

 

No. Sea hares don't wear pants

And it's not poop that I'm talking about. It's the poop machine

 

It's thought to be a species-survival instinct. When many of the slugs and nudibranchs are stressed or near death, they lay their eggs, even when there is almost no hope that they might be fertilized. A response like that typically indicates that your animal will be dead soon.

There are many similar cases documented on the Sea Slug Forum, feel free to use the search there:

The Sea Slug Forum - Home Page

Cheers,



Don

 

So no chance that it expelled it's intestines or did I get my information wrong?

 

No, you got the expelled intestines thing right, but sea cucumbers/holothurians are the ones that do that as a defensive measure rather than sacoglossan sea slugs and nudibranchs. They aren't very closely related, as the slugs and nudibranchs are molluscs and the sea cucumbers are echinoderms, like starfish. The emergency-egg-laying thing is pretty well documented among molluscs, though.

Cheers,



Don

 

Great info as usual Don! Thanks!