Re: Bursatella leachii from Florida - egg mass

November 18, 2008
From: Robert Bocik

Concerning message #9331:

My Bursatella leachii (Florida sea hare) has laid eggs!!!

How long will they take to hatch?  What should be done to care for them if anything? They are in a tank with other fishes should I contain them in a separate tank or block the area from predators?

Thanks this will be great for the kids to see if they survive.

Locality: St Petersburg, 1.5', FL, Gulf flats, Nov 13 2008, Sand/grass. Length: 3.5''

Robert Bocik

rbocik@msn.com

Bocik, R., 2008 (Nov 18) Re: Bursatella leachii from Florida - egg mass. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22042

Dear Rob,
Have a look at my comments to an earlier message on the same topic [message #18331]. Since this species takes about a week for the larvae to hatch out of the egg ribbon I guess you will see larvae hatching out in the next day or so. There is some evidence that sea hare egg ribbons have some chemical defence but I don't know about the larvae. A greater problem with the larvae is feeding them, as they require live phytoplankton which will be very difficult to provide in a home aquarium. The other difficulty is that most veliger larvae in aquaria tend to get trapped in the surface layer. You may be lucky, but captive breeding of slugs with a free-swimming veliger larvae is quite difficult. There is a paper (Paige, 1986) describing how to culture Bursatella and Aplysia brasiliana in laboratory conditions. Copies of The Veliger should be available in university and museum libraries. 

In the species Fact Sheet, I mention another paper by John Paige (1988) on larval development in this species. Here is a brief summary of his findings.

The larvae are planktotrophic, which means they are free-swimming and need to feed on phytoplankton. Growth after hatching is rapid, with veligers reaching  full size about 15 days after hatching, and by 19 days they are ready to metamorphose into crawling slugs. To settle out of the plankton and change into crawling slugs they need to find the cyanobacteria [blue-green algae] on which they feed [Lyngbya majuscula ]. Growth after settling is rapid and within 15-20 days the larval shell is discarded and they are beginning to look like adult slugs, and can discharge a small cloud of ink if irritated.

  • Paige, J. A. (1986). The laboratory culture of two Aplysiids, Aplysia brasiliana Rang, 1828, and Bursatella leachii plei (Rang, 1828) (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia) in artificial seawater.   The Veliger 29(1): 64-69.
  • Paige, J. A. (1988). Biology, metamorphosis and postlarval development of Bursatella leachii plei Rang (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia). Bulletin of Marine Science, 42(1): 65-75.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2008 (Nov 18). Comment on Re: Bursatella leachii from Florida - egg mass by Robert Bocik. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22042

Factsheet

Bursatella leachii

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