Picked up a Sea Apple from LFS :)

[Dula]

Saw this little bugger hiding out in the bottom of my LFS coral tank. Guy said he would sell him for 25 bucks... I figured that sounded pretty good so I went ahead and bought him. We will see how well I do keeping him in my cube.

 

 

[jestep]

Not trying to be overly pessimistic, but I would take him back. They basically require a huge, well established, NPS style tank with a ton of frequent feedings and they're one of the most sensitive animals to any changes in parameters. Their long term survival rate is close to zero and they are notorious for nuking tanks when they get stressed or die.

[Spiderguardnano]

Would take him back Forsure if that goes so will everything in the tank

[D Z]

I, also, have heard very similar things to what jestep said. If you do choose to keep it, please keep a close eye on parameters and the sea apple. Proceed with caution.

[clownfitch]

Lots of feeding and even more nutrient removal through very frequent (daily) water changes and extremely heavy skimming. Pretty much the water needs to be pristine with an around the clock abundant plank-tonic food supply.

 

What will the LFS not sell a hobbyist? i was in one of my local stores a few weeks ago and over heard the manager selling a man and his young son a brand new fusion tank as well as a clownfish and anemone to go with it. I guess when the anemone died it would properly cycle the tank? I couldn't believe it. Anyway, it is always best to take a minute to do a google search on a critter before you buy it if you're not sure about its needs and care.

[Jellyingabout]

I disagree, I think they are beautiful animals and why not have a stab at keeping them. I have kept cucumbers with great success and have even lost them. Providing they don't die from aggravated stress, but die naturally the so called "cuke nuke" won't happen. Let face it almost every large fleshy thing in the tank could kill you tank if it dies in an aggravated way, cucumbers aren't special, i think they just have a bad rep and stigma surrounding them.

 

Imagine what would happen if a scolly was to die overnight or got bumped and decided to go chemical warfare on you? there's a thread right now of someone loosing everything for just that. Lets face it, if anything the size of a cucumber decides to die in the tank overnight you risk loosing everything, and a lot more things in our tanks have the ability to kill everything else.

 

Apples aren't that hard to feed what with all the food available. They are highly mobile and can change from a deposit feeding mode to a filter feeding mode. Providing you target feed it occasionally with SPS food and a little phytoplankton it'll thrive. In my experience they like to position them selves in the return flow and eat all the detritus and bugs from the sump.

Although I would say due to their feeding requirements and delicate nature they still require an experienced hobbyist to care for the properly.