Sea Apple splitting in 2

[Pipefishlady]

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]

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

 

[Macdaddynick1]

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]

@ 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]

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

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

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]

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]

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]

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.

(Sea) Apple overload at Changi

There were lots of large Sea apple sea cucumbers at Changi today. Also, a lot of sea stars and other kinds of sea cucumbers on the lush seag...

wildshores.blogspot.com