Sea Apple splitting in 2

Pipefishlady · Nov 4, 2023

I woke up to my sea apple splitting in 2. He used to only have 1 mouth and now he has a second mouth. Does anyone know if they do this often? Does it mean he is happy or not? Will he now have 2 mouths or will he fully split into separate apples?

albano · Nov 4, 2023

You know what happens, when he’s not happy, right?

Macdaddynick1 · Nov 4, 2023

That’s fascinating. Also I doubt it would be using its energy to grow a second mouth if it wasn’t happy.how big is your tank? https://www.aquarium-larochelle.com...e species of sea apple,the space of one month.

Pipefishlady · Nov 4, 2023

@ Albano yes, hence why I'm asking if this would be a sign of happiness or not
@ mac 120 gallon tank with hardly anything in it as I have to move the tank soon due to construction....not looking forward to that...

Reefing102 · Nov 4, 2023

Cant say I’ve ever seen that but I would imagine it happens if it’s happy. Pretty cool.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 4, 2023

I've not heard of sea apples splitting and I would not be convinced that is what's happening.

Googling sea apple splitting only pulls up this thread.

ISpeakForTheSeas · Nov 4, 2023

Pipefishlady said:
I woke up to my sea apple splitting in 2. He used to only have 1 mouth and now he has a second mouth. Does anyone know if they do this often? Does it mean he is happy or not? Will he now have 2 mouths or will he fully split into separate apples?

That second mouth without tentacles is the cucumber's anus. Sections 3.1 and 3.2 of the link below have some good figures/images of sea apple anatomy:

Pseudocolochirus violaceus - Sea Apple Cucumber - Taxo4254 - Wiki.nus

wiki.nus.edu.sg

That said, what and how much have you been feeding it?

Pipefishlady · Nov 4, 2023

HAHAHAHA...@ I speak...well I guess then jokes on me... I have had him about 6 months and feed various types of phyto and such. He just looks super weird today splitting his body in 2 different "bubbles" ....never seen him do that before with his body....

ISpeakForTheSeas · Nov 4, 2023

Pipefishlady said:
He just looks super weird today splitting his body in 2 different "bubbles" ....never seen him do that before with his body....

Yeah, I know they do this occasionally in the wild (the link below has a couple of examples), but I have no idea why. It seems to be more common in larger specimens.