Cucumber about to die??!?!?!

I have had a 4 inch yellow cucumber in my tank for a while. Hasnt done so good since pods are always crawling around him and annoying him. Basically i just looked in my tank after not seeing my cucumber for like 2 weeks and he is tiny, like half an inch. Pods and bristleworms are crawling all over again. Should i take him out before he likely dies in my tank?

 

Anthos,

Sorry to hear about your Yellow Cucumber. Yellow Cucumbers are so beautifully ugly, I love them...

Has he lost his feeding arms?
Have you attempted to spot feed him some liquid phytoplankton or zooplankton?

I hope he comes back for you. But if he doesn't make sure to get him out of there, he will release toxins upon death and depending on the size of your tank it could quickly effect your other fish.

Best of luck to you and your yellow buddy.

Cheers.

edit: you don't happen to have any pictures of him do you?

 

Dont got any pictures of him. Havent attempted feeding him, honestly, I think hes dead and gone. The sight of him compared to what he used to look like a few weeks ago is unbelievable. Literally, he didnt even look like a cucumber, just looked like a piece of his pods that was a half inch long and with pods/bristleworms/snails climbing on him. I think they were cleaning up and eating him honestly. If he is somewhere still in my tank, so far no toxins have been visually seen and i think nothin will really change. I will test my water though.

 

Sorry to hear this, be sure to check your ammonia levels too, just to play it safe. They truly are such beautifully ugly creatures and can keep you fascinated for so long, just watching them amble about.

 

Yea. just tested my water yesterday ammonia 0ppm, nitrate 0ppm. Gotta pickup another nitrite test kit. But water seems fine so I really thing the demise of this cucumber was due to pods just relentlessly picking at him. Kinda weird that it seems noone else has experienced this same situation.