help sea hare with eggs

[biggy_boie]

The Sea Slug Forum - Bursatella leachiii just got a sea hare and it has laid eggs
it is a brusatella leachii as far as i can tell from the sea slug forum
dose any one know any thing about raising the eggs
thank you

[CarmieJo]

Here is a for you.

[Rob]

i have asked Brian Plankis to chime in..
he may or may not have info, as raising many inverts is still in the area of unknown

[BrianPlankis]

Unfortunately not much is available on sea hare reproduction that is readily available online. There are a couple of generalizations:

1. Generally, sea hares lay an egg mass that results in larvae that feed in the water column, typically on phytoplankton of some kind. However, most reef tanks do not have nearly enough phytoplankton to support the babies.

2. If you get a green water tank going then it might be possible to raise the babies if the eggs are easy to remove, however that is still a pretty low chance of success.

3. What would really be needed would a dedicated larval tank with excellent water quality and a steady supply of phyto and water changes. You would also need to research in the scientific literature for any tips on raising them and typically that is a long search with little or no results.

But all this should be taken with a grain of salt, there is still a lot that is unknown about sea hares and it could be easy or hard to raise these larvae. Good luck!

Brian

[Rob]

and this is where Project DIBS comes in.
Its true that little is know, but this is a good thing and a bad thing.. its bad because there are no "guides on how to proceed, but its good because there is aALOT to be learned. check out Project DIBS and you can post questions there if you are interested on trying to proceed.. lots of people over there (including BRain) that would be willing to help you in this challenge

[V]

Sea hares, wow, how commited are you at keeping them? seeing the second generation, (well that you've seen anyways) is a cool thing. And i make no secret to loving them as a species so if your commited I can suggest ways to maxamise success with a small budget.


Firstly, your sea hare, are the eggs attached in string form or egg clump clutchs. are you able to see & remove them with ease?
Plastic Chinese soup spoons & your turkey baster are wonderful tools you'll be using. Go to the shops & buy 2 decent quality coffee or tea perculators, you know the ones where you spoon in your mixtures & hot water, then add the strainer & slowly push it down to infuse & trap all the sediments. Using 2 of these units is the easiest for minimal outlay.

It might sound crazy, & its hard to explain, so i'll try my best to relay the info.
If the centre rod of the strainer is detachable, perfect, if not use pliers & snip it at the base of the strainer, drill a hole for rigid air tubing & place that though the strainer. using a "T" air connector, loop a piece of flex air tubing so it creates a closed loop. pin prick the flex tubing, you'll judge the lengths as you see fit.make sure you install a air twist regulator so you determin air flow rates. obiously your going to need to grow phyto to raise the young, so if you already do, the bubble movement follows the same lines, just with pin pricks its to a lesser & gentler degree, & cause you've looped the flex tubing its happening mainly on one side.

anyways, the coffee strainer is glass, with handles which is a bonus, so you can see & move with ease. the strainer section is a very fine strainer, so theres no chance of damaging the free swimming young, you use your baster & chinese spoons to obtain & move the eggs/ young, use a ratio of 1:5 of green water & RO and your own logic depending on up take & growth rates. Water changes are performed by very slowly pushing the strainer to a desired level, use your baster to both draw & replenish both top-off water & phyto. remember to save the ro till last so when you remove the strainer you can use the baster with water to clean it @ the same time. Its trial & error, having 2 is for back-ups, different growth rates, seperations what ever.
This is prob the cheapest way to have a crack at raising young, at which point if they do survive your going to there after be supplying normal food.

Good luck, keep us posted

[V]

side note: very species dependant: watch for a steady temp, 20-25deg in you case, how you regulate i leave to you

[biggy_boie]

well i have some bad news my sea hare wedged it self in front of one of my power heads and blasted its brains out well i was sleeping. the first batch of eggs has hatched and i was able to see the larve for a day in the cup i had hanging in my tank but there is no sign them now. but i do still have one small batch left that im going to try to save.
thank you all very much for your help

[V]

0h no, thats terrible news, do you have an over flow?
they rise to the surface in nature & might have been skimmed.
there adventurist spirt often lands them in strife, its like dieing for that last hard to reach meal, much the pitty.
i was going to pull a few strings & get some long term caring info on raising from start to finnish. If your able to keep the last batch going for awhile i'll put in the effort & research & report on proven ways for survival. you sourced info from sea slug forum, thats the sydney university, which its prob easier for me to access that yourself.