black cucumber - on the glass ALL DAY

My black sea cucumber has been on the glass of the aquarium ALL day, it even got burned on the heater and viscerated (I re-located the heater to the sump after that). Is it normal to have the cucumber spend literally the whole day on the various tank walls?

(Have had tank set up for 3 months, has a sand bed and cucumber seems happy and fed well)

Just wondering.

 

3 month old tank with a cuke??? He is probably looking for food with a tank that new.

 

I dont know about the specific behavior, but if it was injured in any way I would start running carbon ASAP and keep a close eye on it. They can release toxins that can wipe everything out similar to anemone's and sea apple's

 

I wondered the same, after much googling (and I may be wrong) I've seen that as long as it's moving around and "pooping" out sand quite often then it's probably getting enough to eat. The cucumber has been in there for about a month and hasn't done this yet. There are a few slight brown algae patches on the sand and tons of pods... /shrug

 

Regarding the toxins of it's visceration I've been reading about that too, it is not always toxic and when it is not anything close to the sea apple's poison. I also removed all the guts it viscerated immediately afterwards...

 

It expelled it's digestive organs when it touched the heater???? It does that in a defense against predators. If enough is expelled it will cause havoc in your system.

 

Yes, when it touched the heater. I was googing and found someone else had the same thing happen. I removed all of the guts it expelled and everything has been fine so far.

 

Start running carbon ASAP. Like you said, it may be not as bad as an apple's, but still fully capable of wiping out a tank

 

I understand yours was burned by the heater then dumped it's guts but, the pearl fish lives in the cuke worm, eats the cukes guts and then the cuke grows them back. Sometimes it kills it, but if yours is still hanging on to the glass, I'd say it's good, but keep a close eye on it. I had one for a few years that scaled the glass and would make circles around the tank. If the worm looks even the slightest like it's sliming, take it out immediately and throw it in the trash.

 

First off I don't have any carbon and I can't get to Petsmart in time before it closes, so unfortunately that's out of the question. It was about 9 hours ago that this happened, everything is still fine, I hope it stays that way!!!

Uggghhh!