Suitability of Dolabella auricularia in an aquarium

December 6, 2003
From: Carolyn Bryce

Hi
I have come upon your excellent website after trying to find information on Dolabella auricularia. I have been offered one of these animals for my marine aquarium to deal with nuisance algae including bryopsis, feather caleurpa, bubble algae and some hair algae. Does this species feed on these algae as obviously I don't want to add it for it to starve plus if it doesn't eat these types of algae the it would be a waste of time adding it in the first place! The tank contains mainly SPS corals and a deep sand bed of about 4 inches.

Any help you could give me on this animals diet would be greatly appreciated and congratulations on you excellent and informative site.

cheers
Carolyn Bryce

c.bryce@strath.ac.uk

Bryce, C., 2003 (Dec 6) Suitability of Dolabella auricularia in an aquarium. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/11612

Dear Carolyn,
I guess the first thing to realise that as in nature, there is seldom an easy answer to pest control. If you introduce something and it gets rid of all your pests what them does it eat until the pests return? Sea Hares, such as Dolabella, sometimes work quite well in solving algal problems in aquaria so it's worth try. Dolabella is a species which seesm to prefer a variety of algal species in its diet, but I don't know whether it will eat species of Caulerpa which have some particular nasty defensive chemicals. So unless it's a large animal [more than 6 cms] it's probably worth giving it ago. The reason I say avoid large animals is that they may be nearing old age and natural death and they would require quite a lot of food.
Good luck
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (Dec 6). Comment on Suitability of Dolabella auricularia in an aquarium by Carolyn Bryce. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/11612

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