luu78
Well-Known Member
Hi everyone,
I recently acquired a wild coral colony that largely resembles H. Bowerbanki. After a quick online inquiry, it turned out to be a Moseleya latistellata moon coral from perhaps Australia. Anyways, while cleaning it I found a hitchhiker that resembles a sea cucumber and thought what the heck, let’s keep it in a cup and leave in the sump for a few days and see....well, as it turns out I noticed it has feeding tentacles for filter feeding that came out later on, resembling the beatiful sea apples that I sometimes saw at LFS. I did some searching and understand the potential toxin that it can release and nuke my tank. But with lots of live phytoplanktons in my system, I think I will grow this baby sea apple out and post the progression for all to enjoy. I couldn’t find any picture of baby sea apple online. However, I did notice the body has a slight hint of purple and that if the Moseleya colony is really from Australia, then this little sea apple might be the Australian sea apple. Anyways, here are a couple pictures...happy reefing! Btw, I keep track of my phytoplanktons density in the tank by randomly sampling my tank water from time to time under the microscope and adjust the phyto dosing as needed to maintain several cells within my microscope lense. I keep a live culture mainly of Tetraselmis, I think. It is a very good size microalgae for filter feeders and are easier for me to monitor under the microscope compared to nannochroposis. I like to see the motile Tetraselmis swimming around in the water sample.
I recently acquired a wild coral colony that largely resembles H. Bowerbanki. After a quick online inquiry, it turned out to be a Moseleya latistellata moon coral from perhaps Australia. Anyways, while cleaning it I found a hitchhiker that resembles a sea cucumber and thought what the heck, let’s keep it in a cup and leave in the sump for a few days and see....well, as it turns out I noticed it has feeding tentacles for filter feeding that came out later on, resembling the beatiful sea apples that I sometimes saw at LFS. I did some searching and understand the potential toxin that it can release and nuke my tank. But with lots of live phytoplanktons in my system, I think I will grow this baby sea apple out and post the progression for all to enjoy. I couldn’t find any picture of baby sea apple online. However, I did notice the body has a slight hint of purple and that if the Moseleya colony is really from Australia, then this little sea apple might be the Australian sea apple. Anyways, here are a couple pictures...happy reefing! Btw, I keep track of my phytoplanktons density in the tank by randomly sampling my tank water from time to time under the microscope and adjust the phyto dosing as needed to maintain several cells within my microscope lense. I keep a live culture mainly of Tetraselmis, I think. It is a very good size microalgae for filter feeders and are easier for me to monitor under the microscope compared to nannochroposis. I like to see the motile Tetraselmis swimming around in the water sample.
