Sea Apple Trouble

[Atarax]

Maybe some of you knowledgeable aquaria experts can help, I have a sea apple and, like an idiot, I know very little about 'cukes. but when i went in to check my boys (fish) this morning, my sea apple had (for lack of a less gross way to put it) brown strings coming out or his rear end, i thought maybe something in the tank had messed with him and he had discharged his guts, but this was coming from his rear end. since sea apples breath from their rear i was worried it may kill him. ive seperated him and been watching but im worried, any ideas what may be wrong? i have recently added some chems to raise PH but it is around 8.0. thnx ahead of time, i know some of you guys are genius. :grinyes:

P.S. im pretty sure it isnt dung, there's a lot of it. and he seems "deflated" he's still stuffing his face like he's getting paid to do it also.

[FishHeadSoup]

got a picture?

[water_baby83]

Sounds to me like your little guy is seriously stressed or irritated. Sea apples can display a number of actions when bothered or stressed. Some will deflate themselves as small as the possibly can, and others will actually take on water, expanding their bodies to more than double their normal sizes in order to catch on a current and float away. In addition to the other signs of stress that I mentioned, the most drastic response a stressed cucumber can make is to expel its Cuvierian Tubules. The tubules of Cuvier are a series of long, spaghetti-like tubes leading off the hind-gut – the cucumber equivalent of a colon – at the base of the respiratory tree. The Cuvierian tubules are expelled by rupturing the hindgut, and this defensive ploy is almost always accompanied by the release of a soup of toxic chemicals that are likely to seriously impact, and potentially wipe out an enclosed tank. Although the effect of these chemicals are rarely lethal in the wild, more than 96% of predators exposed to a cucumber after having previously experienced the defensive chemicals remained far away from the cucumbers (Hamel & Mercier 2000). While I will repeat that it certainly is possible for a sea apple to kill tankmates if sufficiently stressed, I have often included a sea apple in my own tanks without any problems. If proper precautions are taken to ensure that the sea apple is not damaged by a pump intake or overflow, chances are very slim that you’ll ever see any evidence of the toxicity of these animals. In my experience, reports of “cuke nukes” most often occur when the tank is small, runs an undersized (or no) skimmer, does not use or regularly replace carbon, or when the tank is not checked on a daily basis (such as when someone goes away for vacation and has a friend look after their tank). I have never personally suffered a wipe out from any of these unfortunate events though. Catching the problem early, doing extensive water changes and increasing skimming and carbon use to remove the toxins as quickly as possible, has worked well. If any large animal, such as a sea cucumber, dies in an aquarium and is not immediately dealt with, it will drop water quality. It seems to be common that reports of tanks affected by sea cucumbers also include the sea cucumber itself among the casualties, and therefore, at least some of these “cuke nukes” reported are likely to be the result of insufficient attention to a decaying animal in the aquarium, because if the defensive toxins released by the apple, killed them as well - what would be the point?. If you could add some photo's that would be great, but I think what i mentioned above is the issue here. Good thing you seperated him soon, make sure he is by himself if you can that way no other animals suffer from his temper, LOL. What do you feed him also? And how often. Well, good luck, hope this helped some, keep us posted!

-Em

[Atarax]

Well part of the "mass" was indeed the tubules. and im assuming the rest was dung. He has gotten better and remains in prison right by himself until he can prove he is safe to return to civilazation. thank you guys for the help thus far. ill try and get some pix of the old boy soon. If my cam will cooperate :swear:

[DeLgAdO]

Well part of the "mass" was indeed the tubules. and im assuming the rest was dung. He has gotten better and remains in prison right by himself until he can prove he is safe to return to civilazation. thank you guys for the help thus far. ill try and get some pix of the old boy soon. If my cam will cooperate :swear:


Sudden changes in pH or salinity can cause it to shed its oral tentacles.

thats from live aquaria

and from reading the part of how you added chemicals to raise the pH to 8.0. id have to say GOOD GOD MAN!! WHAT WAS THE pH BEFORE!! :eek:

i would keep it isolated from your fish

if that thing gets stressed or pissed off its gunna release a poison that will wipe out your tank.

just my 2 cents

good luck bro :thumbsup:

[Don4921]

hey man if the thing dies make sure to get it out of the tank immediatley when dead it releases a chemical from its pond which could kill everything in your tank. I think it is seriously stressed so tke care of it quickly!

[Atarax]

my PH was about 7.7-7.8 had to get it up to keep the boys happy. The sea apple decided to play nice but just to be on the safe side im taking him back to the store, apparantly something in the tank pisses him off. :swear: