Aplysia

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Proper Care and Handling of Aplysia

For holding animals for an extended time period (>5 days):

Prepare your tank well in advance:

If you have a closed system, set up your tank at least four weeks in advance, using either real or artificial seawater at appropriate levels.

Water Conditions:
Temperature:  between 13-16°; Celsius
Salinity: 30-36 ppt
pH: >8 and <8.6
Oxygen: >95%

Food:
Our Aplysia are reared on laboratory-cultured red algae. This is the recommended diet, however, if you are in a pinch for food, dried Nori sheets or ashed Romaine lettuce leaves are short term, but poor quality substitutes.

Feeding:
Feed every three days.  Feed the animals only what they will consume in 30 minutes.

Receiving your animals — Acclimation:

• Take animals out of box, but keep in bag.
• Record the group number(s) on the bags; it is the key to the history of your animals.
• Place the unopened bag in your aquarium for one hour.
• After an hour, open bag and add 100 ml of your tank's water to the water in the bag.
• After 15 minutes add another 100 ml of your tank's water to the water in the bag.
• After another 15 minutes release the animal(s) into your tank.

Problems with your animals:

Please let us know within 24 hours if there is a problem with your animals.  We have shipped Aplysia for the last 15 years, and at this point in time we very rarely have animals arrive in bad condition.  Our experience has been that very large animals (>500g) do not travel as well, so please order enough of a supply to meet your needs. Our smaller animals have a 100% survival rate.

If your animals seem to be doing poorly after arriving, many times, the tank is the culprit. Should you experience anything out of the ordinary, please call us immediately so we can help you determine the exact nature of the problem and help you solve it.

Note: We also do not issue refunds for animals that have been improperly acclimated, stored or handled.  We do not issue refunds for animals if you do not call within 24 hours of receiving the animals.