Sea Cucumber!

Aquarium Invertebrates
Anyone have a Sea Cucumber or know anything about this awesome detrivore that will aid in keeping your benthic area in tip top shape!!!?
I just bought one and am psyched...they are alittle on the UGLY side but their function in a reef far outweighs their lack of vibrance IMO!

 

Don't have one, but I'm vaguely familar with the local variety we have up here...if they get cranky the kinda spew their contents all over yer tank...at least that's what the ones we had in our Gulf of Maine tank back in college did...

I've got a buddy that has a tiger cuke (i think) and he loves it...i was just uncertain about putting one in my small tank w/ my barely adequate sand bed...

good luck!

 

I had one that did an amazing job on the sand in my old softy tank. Then I bought a tang that harassed the thing until it died.

Then I got to find out what pearlfish were. ;D reefED - GBR Explorer - Sea Cucumbers

I'll let those curious enough to click the link and I'll leave it at that.

 

Thanks!!! I know that if they die or get scarred etc. they could pollute your tank though those chances are rather slim! Sea Apples, I believe, are more of a problem!
Fine grain sand and one Cucumber per tank is a safe assumption in their survival! Starvation is the biggest worry! I will keep an eye out for mine and to see if it leaves any traces of spaghetti like sand configuration behind it which is sand that it has cleaned(almost like poop) If their are sighns of that then it is eating!!!!!

 

I didn't click the link but am guessing that it's about the infamous butt fish

 

Yes

To quote Forest Gump...."That's all I have to say about that".

 

can be a little messy

Hi,
I had one in the sump he may have bumped into a heater or someone scared him, not sure, my LFS warned me they can be fickled. I wondered why they kept them in a seperate tank, like 5-6 little brown logs reminds me of my last trip to bermuda,, haha

But my skimmers were full of this hard white slime that was very sticky, it fouled my pumps and the tank it was like that spray kids spray on each other at parties, except it was very hard and stiff.
My skimmer overflowed and flooded the floor a bit, and my pumps all ground to a stop or almost stop. the slime may be very toxic to almost everything in the tank I had a small atlantic maybe some of the tiger tails are better???
It was the worst mess I ve ever seen .
Never found the little turd but lost quite a few of the crabs and some fish , so try and keep mr uggly happy.
Doug

psps Here's a article about the effects of Cuke slime or regurge...
(([BThe adhesive from the Cuvierian tubules of H. forskali shares these characteristics with many marine bioadhesives and structural biomaterials][/B]
(( * DeMoor S,
* Waite JH,
* Jangoux M,
* Flammang P.

Marine Biology Laboratory, University of Mons-Hainaut, 6 Avenue du Champ de Mars, B-7000 Mons, Belgium.

Sea cucumbers possess a peculiar specialized defense system: the so-called Cuvierian tubules. The system is mobilized when the animal is mechanically stimulated, resulting in the discharge of a few white filaments, the tubules. Their great adhesivity, combined with their high tensile strength, allows Cuvierian tubules to entangle and immobilize potential predators. The cellular origin and composition of the Cuvierian tubule adhesive were investigated in the species Holothuria forskali by studying prints left on the substratum after mechanical detachment of the tubule. Polyclonal antibodies raised against tubule print material were used to locate the origin of tubule print constituents in the tubules. Extensive immunoreactivity was detected in the secretory granules of mesothelial granular cells, suggesting that their secretions make up the bulk of the adhesive material. Tubule print material consists of 60% proteins and 40% carbohydrates, a composition that is unique among the adhesive secretions of marine invertebrates. Although it is highly insoluble, a small fraction of this material can be extracted using denaturing buffers. Electrophoretic analysis of the extracts revealed that it contains about 10 proteins with apparent molecular masses ranging from 17 to 220 kDa and with closely related amino acid compositions, rich in acidic and in small side-chain amino acids. The adhesive from the Cuvierian tubules of H. forskali shares these characteristics with many marine bioadhesives and structural biomaterials.))