sea apple snack?

[luvs2playy]

I think my small sea apple has been snacked on by a crab. It was on the sandbed and since then I have moved it up on the glass. About half of its feeders are now stubs. Does anyone know if they will regrow?

I know the picture doesn't show them extended now but I would have thought that if it were being snacked on, that it would have nuked the tank. Guess not. It used to have red stalks with white bushy tips for its feeders and now about half are just red stubs with this flesh? dangling from it.

Anything I can do?

 

[Squishie89]

My initial thoughts are yes they will regrow and to soak his food in garlic to help ward off infection. Obviously keep a close eye on him and make sure he continues to eat and act as normally as he does and that he doesn't seem ... traumatized by this. Is it possible the water quality is off?
It does say on LA, "It is very sensitive to high levels of copper-based medications. Sudden changes in pH or salinity can cause it to shed its oral tentacles." So I would triple check your pH and maybe even test for copper.

 

[luvs2playy]

thx, i'll have to check into that. my test strips for pH i don't like but have seen no swing in that. no test kit for copper. i've seen or done nothing i would think that would give me a large swing in pH.

 

[Squishie89]

Good luck! I hope he can recover, absolutely marvelous creatures!

 

[slapshot]

I doubt they were snacked on. He would just retract them.ore than likely he is starving. It can take 6 to 8 months before they start to deteriorate. The tentacles go first. What and how often do you feed?

 

[luvs2playy]

I did a bit of research and read that hermits can snack on the feeders..... dunno if one of the crabs did so i moved it up on the glass out of reach.

what do i feed and how often? I bought DT's phytoplankton and was feeding 3 tbs/ day which was more than what the lfs said to feed. As i was doing that i bought a plankton disc and miracle grow from a florida site and started my own plankton culture. Why do i think it was snacked on? it seemed to be an abrupt change. it was almost like it was an overnight thing. Since it was fairly new to the tank and I wasn't sure if it was going to stay put, i watched it most every day so it was like one day fine the next day i was "hmm, whats going on here?"

 

[slapshot]

I feed mine every two hours. Once a day is not enough

 

[Rydogg420]

you feed it Every two hours? that seems like a lot of food to feed it.. there should be "food" free floating in you tank all the time for it to much on.