Giant sea slug I think
 

I was at a LFS and saw this critter that looked like a giant sea slug. It was about 6"to8" long and had a large back end. any Ideas

Sea hare in fact. Algae eaters, I've heard they do fairly well in captivity. Some species can grow over 2' long! When disturbed they discharge a blacky ink.

Re: Giant sea slug I think
 

:eek: Did they fold it up?? :razz:

Woops ment 6" to 8" I fixed it

Thanks for the ID Teevee. Has anyone ever had one of these guys are they reef safe? Do they tend to knock things over? I have a lot of algae in my tank thought it might be a good clean up critter.

sea hare and slug is 50/50 chance.. i have read that they expelled a toxin which is very very toxic to other reef inhabitant when disturbed. but they are algae eaters (some). so IMO do take caution when purchase and make sure no other inhabitant in tank will harass the sea hare

Cheers

I think I will pass I like the rest of my tank life :mrgreen:

Hey TNT canada,
I just bought a seahare for my sump, and it is totally amazing! I heard about the ink too, but it has never ejected it. It eats hair algae like mad! You can actually watch it eat large strands very quickly. I read they only live about 3 months so I hope this is inaccurate.

Mike

Thanks for the info Mike. :smile:

You may want to try to ID the animal on http://www.seaslugforum.net. Based on my limited understanding, I would suggest considering reserving this animal for a fairly large tank with a fairly good filtration system. That way any expelled toxin could possibly be removed before it has a chance to do serious damage. However unless the animal is severely disturbed, it is fairly unlikely to eject the ink. You will want to ensure the animal has an adequate supply of consumable algae available.