What is this purple/white pile of ropey stuff

[Morphix]

I found this under my rocks today, that's a sea hare - chomping on it or doing something to it with its head end. Is it some sort of egg thing? Is it a tapeworm or something? It's not moving and I didn't think sea hares ate anything but algae.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Sea Hare eggs. If you've only got one sea hare, then they're infertile. You can keep them or remove them, they shouldn't cause problems either way.

 

[Morphix]

I read some stuff online indicating laying eggs was an end of life activity for them, is that true?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I read some stuff online indicating laying eggs was an end of life activity for them, is that true?

To phrase it this way - sea hares are short lived creatures, typically living about a year under good conditions; sometimes more like 7-8 months if conditions aren't as good. Depending on the species, they may also hit maturity around 7-8 months and start reproducing.

So, it may be an end of life activity, or they may have another 1/3-1/2 of their life left (again, there's some variation depending on care conditions and species).

Some species only live like 6-7 months, and start reproducing at like 2-3 months, so they'll still live another 3-4 months after reproducing.

Personally, I don't consider it a true end of life activity like with octopuses, as the laying of eggs doesn't literally kill them like it does octopuses.

Edit: At least, not with any of the species I've looked at.

 

[yabani]

has anyone seen sea hares releasing such material before. I was concerned and I quarantined the sea hare believing there is something wrong and did not want to harm other fish in the aquarium.