Originally Posted by
Merredeth
I've had one for about nine months now and he is a great addition to the tank. However, housing a sea apple does have some risks.
Here are some pointers though:
1. Make sure you put one in a community tank and not an aggressive tank. You don't want anyone picking on the sea apple.
2. You will need to add phytoplankton to your tank every couple of days as they will die if not eating at least 50 - 60% of the time.
3. Water parameters must be pristine or they will expel their insides and poison your tank in a matter of minutes, killing all your fish.
4. Sea Apples move around a tank. If you have a lot of corals in this tank, be prepared to move them every now and then or they will be sat on. You do run the risk of killing certain soft corals if the sea apple decides to stick the to particular rock.
5. Cover powerheads and heaters. You don't want them stuck to a powerhead. As for heaters, the skin can burn which will create stress, thus you run the danger of your tankmates dying due to the expelling of the insides.
6. While claims of lighting seem to be immaterial according to websites, I have found they are light senstive. Mine seems to close up the first few minutes actinics are on, a few minutes when the whites are on and the same when you turn each off. Moonlights coming on or off you will see the tubes retract as well.
7. Don't put rare fish or highly expensive fish into the tank unless you want to risk losing a large investment. I may be foolish for doing this, but I have several fish that cost a pile of money in my Sea Apple tank. I live dangerously though, and love to spend money replacing fish. hahahaha. Seriously though, if you worry about a particular fish, you should probably have a seond tank set up for the apple, or better yet, get the apple a dedicated tank.
8. Bioloads with sea apples are high. Water changes and a good protein skimmer are a must if you want to keep your tank healthy.
9. Sea Apples will move when they want to. Never move them by pulling them off the tank. You could see an apple stay attached to one area for days or weeks and you can see him bloat up to move.
10. Bloating can be one of two things. Either he is getting ready to move to a different area of the tank with different current, or he is stressed. If you see him move in a few minutes, you are okay. The bloat on their own for no apparent reason as well. You probably won't know until it is too late.
11. If you like worrying about your tank, this is the addition for you. Until you have had him a long time and been able to observe his habits, you will lose some sleep over this addition due to worry. After awhile though, you tend to understand their lifestyle and you eventually come to a point where you don't worry as much.
I love the apple and the color. However, keep in mind that I love to do the tank maintenance so for me, keeping the tank water in pristine conditions is something I enjoy. Not everyone enjoys all the additional maintenance and monitoring sea apples will require to maintain a healthy tank.
Hope this helps you out.
Denise M.
Those are my suggestions.
Wow...Nail on the head, I tell you...I had an Apple before...sadly something bad happened when I was on vacation about 3 years ago and I came home to a dead tank..They are great, look amazing, and very intresting to watch them feed, but they have a large potential for a bad outcome if housed in a closed system that is even slighly negleted..I want to aquire another one, but I dont think I have everything up to par for another quite yet..
