Sea Apple help please! Anyone w/ experience??

[JIllianAG]

ok - I have the most unusual hitch hiker ... a small sea apple! It's been in my brand new tank for three weeks. Some how - my tank never cycled - 14 biocube with 14-15 lbs of very established live rock and few inches of established sand. I have numerous common hitch hikers - one of which is a stinky gorilla crab that I have to capture!!

And this sea apple!!! I do not want it in my tank but I can't let it die. It stays in a hole in the rock and keeps its feeder tentacles out to eat - I've only seen its body once! Has anyone ever experienced this type of behavior?? I really would like him to come out of the rock so I can remove him. Also - what should I be feeding him??

Thanks so much for any help!!!

 

[Flashy Fins]

You can feed them all sorts of things - live phyto, zooplankton liquids, oyster feast, rotifers, anything with a small enough particle size - but in a 14g tank, there's no way you could feed a sea apple enough to keep it from starving. In my early days, I kept one in a 29g and fed it so much, my tank was forever on the verge of crashing, and it still starved and died (no toxins released; I got lucky). You're right to try and get it out. Unfortunately, I don't have any good advice for you there.

There are some sea cucumbers with the same type of tentacles as their apple cousins, that could easily be mistaken if you can only see the filaments. What color is yours?