Pods annoying my sea cucumber.

So basically all night long and in the morning when my halide light is off, all my pods come out (fairly large population also) and many of them take residence hiding on/under/around my sea cucumber. I would basically say he is like an air craft carrier and the pods are the plans. I am concerned because it seems as though he shrinks his body up and where the pods sit on him he sinks that part of his body in almost like a small ditch in his body.

What ar ethe long terms affects of this?

 

I would not be too concerned, it they are eating anything it is probably detritus and film on the cucumber.

You could always get a fish that eats pods to help keep their numbers down. Six-line wrasse is a good one for that, my yellow tail damsel used to keep my numbers in check.

 

+1. My thought was cleaning detail and sounds like a good tank to sustain a goby. All good stuff my friend.

 

i have that same problem only they bother my derasa clam and my zoas. they slowly eat away at the zoas at night. i have a 6 lined wrasse and scooter blenny, which should eat them but my wrasse and blenny hide at night to sleep and the pods only come out at night. i have the big amphipods so there to big for my blenny to eat anyway.

 

I solved this problem by getting an LED moonlight that stays on for a few hours. That way predator and prey are active at the same time.

 

i was woundering if that would work. Ive thought about getting one for that reason but didnt know if it would help. I guess i will give it a try now

 

I know you guys are optomistic about a small thing like this. But i havent seen my cucumber sifting the sand in probably about a week. Half the time he is scrunched into a ball almost cause the pods are climing all over him and in his crevices. Other than getting a pod eating fish..... dunno what to do. Ive tried putting the cucumber on a different side of the tank. No difference.

 

If your cucumber is having issues it would be coincidental to pod’s picking a free meal off of him.

Cuc’s, like most things in our tanks, require pristine water conditions. Most commonly found cuc issues are starvation - people purchase a large cuc and their tanks can not sustain his diet. And most noteworthy is that the cuc is a nocturnal little bugger – are you viewing him during the day or evenings?

 

He is a yellow cuc, very small, only about 4 inches at most fully extended and I have a 40 gallon acrylic setup for roughly over 7.5 months. I think the tank is plenty matured for him. The cucumber i would say is definately not mostly nocturnal. He is out all day, and even during the day pods hide on/in him. I view him day and night, no change has happened since i have had this pod explosion.

 

ok. I have no clue what to do now. Last i saw my cuc was in my rockwork, havent seen him in a good 2 weeks. Hopefully he is alive and not dying in my rockwork, cause i sure wont be able to find him..... I run a skimmer so if he does release his guts hopefully that will get picked up and skimmed.