Cucumber.....

I was wondering has anyone had or have a cucumber in there reef tank. Is there any problem with having cucmbers in reef tanks? I was looking at getting just one, to help with detrius consumption?

please any info would be awesome!!!!

 

Does anybody have experience with cucumbers?

 

I have a type of sea cucumber called a Sea Apple. They are tweaky little creatures that are best left to advanced aquarists. Too many individuals buy these, do not know how to take care of them (or cucumber proof their tanks) and they end up nuking the aquarium. When they die, they like to take everything with them. So just beware and purchase wisely. If you want some info and pics of the specimen I have here are some along with a write up that was done a few months ago.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/pharmrjohns-90g-thread-52614-32.html#post571798

http://www.3reef.com/forums/inverts/sea-apple-iotm-jan-09-a-57083.html

Peace.......John.

 

This is stuff I have heard about cucumbers, but seeing as though I've never had one, please take it with a grain of salt.

The big problem with cucumbers is that they have the bad habit of vomiting up their internal organs if stressed and killing everything in the tank (referred less-than-affectionately as a "cuke nuke"). This means that you have to be especially careful about tankmates, water parameters, etc. There are a few species that vendors say will not nuke the tank if they die, but I've always been a little skeptical of that claim.

I've always wanted to get a tiger tail (one of the supposed "safe" varieties), but it's a digger, and all of my rocks are balanced precariously on top of the sand, so it would probably cause a catastrophic rock slide in my tank even if it didn't nuke it.

 

I have 2 cucs in my tank. In general, the bright colored ones are problems. However the ugly, bland ones are safer. They are more of a sand-sifter and not a filter feeder (like brighter ones tend to be)

 

I would not say the bland ugly ones are safe. There are ugly brown or black detritivores that are just as dangerous as sea apples. Cucumbers are in the class Holothuridae, and are known as holothurians. This is because many species produce a chemical called holothurin, which is a nero toxin, as a defense mechanism, and if released in an aquarium is known to wipe out all the fish without harming the inverts. Some cukes are easy to stress, like the sea apple, many are very hard to stress.

But there is the potential however small. I have heard tiger cukes are safe, but I don't know that for certain

 

I have a tiger tail and he does fine in my tank. Just make sure you don't have some aggressive fish in your tank that will nip at him. He will expel his digestive track as defense and it is toxic.

 

That is how they release the holothurin.