Help ID Tank Spaghetti  11/14/08 Dear Crew, <Hello Andy.> It's been a long time since I rapped at you. I've been out of the loop because my tank crashed in September and I haven't had much to write about <Sorry to hear about that.> -my only inhabitants are a Kole Tang, a Sea Hare (Aplysia californica) that I borrowed from my LFS to deal with the incredible amount of algae that plagued my tank after the crash from (I assume) all the nutrients that were released when $3k worth of fish and coral disintegrated, and a bunch of hermits and snails. I know this Sea Hare is a temperate water species and will eventually starve in my tank, which is why I borrowed it rather than purchased it--I needed something big to eat an incredible amount of algae. Anyway, as I mentioned there is very little in my tank--I am letting my tank settle/re-mature and don't want to load it up with any fish for a few months. Almost nothing survived the crash, so almost all life other than the above is new that came in on a few new pieces of LR and some bristleworms, etc. that I transferred from my other tank. So, imagine my surprise when I found the attached on the underside of a piece of live rock tonight. This mass looks like a handful of spaghetti (same thickness and about 4" in diameter). It appears to be some type of egg mass, but the only thing that could have deposited it is the Sea Hare. Am I right on this? <Absolutely. These are sea hare eggs. Thanks for sharing. Do you know the National Resource for Aplysia at the University of Miami? You'll find information on the lifecycle, larval stages there. Rearing procedures are also briefly described on their website http://aplysia.miami.edu.> Thanks! Andy
<Welcome. Marco.>