Need info. on sea apple cucumber
- Thread starter dic wood
- Start date
reefforbrains
Active Member
Little wonderfully colored timebombs.
The stories of them nuking a tank I personally think have snowballed into magnificent examples of people just regurgitating what they overhear on the grapevine.
They can and DO release toxins that can wipe out a tank. Note- attached to those situations are usually newbie tank owners that dont know what they are doing or how to treat duch sensitive animals.
They are difficult to keep happy since they have particular diet requirments. Spectacular colors but all too often they are inpulse purchases that lead to the animal starving to death in home tanks.
Sensitive to water conditions and tankmates. Dont like to be bothered or generally disturbed. Can spend hours/days in one place feeding. Problems happen when people second guess their methods and contually poke and bother them to provoke movement. (they fear the tank being wiped out by a death in the tank so they poke it)
Yes toxic, not IMPOSSIBLE to keep but the danger associated with them strikes fear in many a hobbiest.
I am no authority on them. Read and speak to other hobbiest that have housed them for periods of over a year to see if it might be a good fit for your tank.
-Sea apple wranglers chime on in with your secrets of success.
Welcome to the boards and hopefully others will give thier oppinions to help you decide if it is a good match.
-RFB
The stories of them nuking a tank I personally think have snowballed into magnificent examples of people just regurgitating what they overhear on the grapevine.
They can and DO release toxins that can wipe out a tank. Note- attached to those situations are usually newbie tank owners that dont know what they are doing or how to treat duch sensitive animals.
They are difficult to keep happy since they have particular diet requirments. Spectacular colors but all too often they are inpulse purchases that lead to the animal starving to death in home tanks.
Sensitive to water conditions and tankmates. Dont like to be bothered or generally disturbed. Can spend hours/days in one place feeding. Problems happen when people second guess their methods and contually poke and bother them to provoke movement. (they fear the tank being wiped out by a death in the tank so they poke it)
Yes toxic, not IMPOSSIBLE to keep but the danger associated with them strikes fear in many a hobbiest.
I am no authority on them. Read and speak to other hobbiest that have housed them for periods of over a year to see if it might be a good fit for your tank.
-Sea apple wranglers chime on in with your secrets of success.
Welcome to the boards and hopefully others will give thier oppinions to help you decide if it is a good match.
-RFB
trish&dave
Member
Not trying to hijack your thread, but I have a similar question. Any yes you are right reefforbrain, impulse buy! Purchased yesterday (have a friend that has one that is doing well) and today a emrald poked him and he swelled up like a watermelon and started floating around the tank. My wife call in a panic and said he was squirting something out. Any chance this will hurt our fish?
texasmetal
Active Member
Considered the most toxic of the cucumbers. They grow pretty darn big too, need a very large tank. There's one the size of a 10lb bowling ball at my LFS in a 580 gallon tank.
I'd love to have one, they are beautiful. Not worth the risk though.
I'd love to have one, they are beautiful. Not worth the risk though.
trish&dave
Member
Well, we made our first major mistake putting one of these in our 120. It was on the sand and a hermit crab started picking at it and it swelled the size of a grapefruit. The wife panicked and pulled him out of the tank as he was excreating something. We lost a yellow tang and a coral beauty angel!
Not worth the risk in my opinion! Beautiful, but risky. MAJOR ROOKY MISTAKE!
Hopefully we do not loose anything else. Did a 15% water change, doing another 20% today. All tests were perfect Ammonia, NO2&3, PO4 all 0. Must be toxic.
Not worth the risk in my opinion! Beautiful, but risky. MAJOR ROOKY MISTAKE!
trish&dave
Member
Would enjoy hearing any other experiences with sea apples. We did our water chances and everything else seems to be doing OK. The LFS said the toxic this is "just a mith and would not crash a tank" I told him even tough a mith, he should have warned of the potential! Needless to say, I will not be back to World of P... in florence ky
jaybeingsalty
New Member
I have had mine for about a year now.. He gets big and puffy if you mess with him or other things pick at him... but I have had fish that have lasted right along with him for that year. NOTE: I am not an expert, in fact, I consider myself a noob. However, I have kept mine in a 30 gal tank. I feed him PhytoPlex. (careful with this stuff though, too much of it causes your levels to jump fast.
I have never seen him eat, nor have I seen him do the opposite. He does open up his tentacles very frequently. He moves around when I change flow paths in the tank. I think they are smart enough to find their own sweet spot. I just recently got a 90 gallon tank and as an experiment I left the sea apple in my 30 gal tank. I put only one pump in the tank and the sea apple moved around the tank until he found that pump. Now he chills right next to the pump so that when he opens up he gets the full flow of it. from this I deduct that they like a lot of flow.
I was actually debating on moving him into my 90 with coral. Hence why I found this post.. I was seeing if anyone knew more then I did before I took the risk. Also as a side note.. I had him in with corals before. The corals were healthy and spawning during this time period.
Maybe I just got really lucky
I have never seen him eat, nor have I seen him do the opposite. He does open up his tentacles very frequently. He moves around when I change flow paths in the tank. I think they are smart enough to find their own sweet spot. I just recently got a 90 gallon tank and as an experiment I left the sea apple in my 30 gal tank. I put only one pump in the tank and the sea apple moved around the tank until he found that pump. Now he chills right next to the pump so that when he opens up he gets the full flow of it. from this I deduct that they like a lot of flow.
I was actually debating on moving him into my 90 with coral. Hence why I found this post.. I was seeing if anyone knew more then I did before I took the risk. Also as a side note.. I had him in with corals before. The corals were healthy and spawning during this time period.
Maybe I just got really lucky
jaybeingsalty
New Member
Here is a link to a magazine website article that has a very detailed explanation of the sea apple and how to keep them. It appears to be well researched.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...003/invert.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...003/invert.htm
