What Cucumber to Buy?

[Tigger]

I am looking for something to stir up the sand. I am thinking of buying a cucumber, but I heard that if they die, they give off a toxin that will kill all of your fish. Are their any cucumbers that don't do this? Which cucumbers do you recommend. J&L has both the Tiger Cucumber and the Black Knobby cucumber. Are these any good?

What are your experiences with cucumber.

Do you think I should just get nassarius snails instead?

Thanks

[Beverly]

I am looking for something to stir up the sand. I am thinking of buying a cucumber, but I heard that if they die, they give off a toxin that will kill all of your fish.

Yes, I have heard the same thing about cucumbers and am staying away from them.

Do you think I should just get nassarius snails instead?

We have nassarius snails in three of our small reefs, but they don't stir the sand as much as I would like them to.

I have seen white star fish at the lfs that stir the sand, but am not sure whether or not they are toxic when they die.

Some of the sand stirrers eat the smaller animals in the sand, but am not sure which do so. Maybe someone with more experience will help you out here.

I stir the sand by using a turkey baster to gently blast at the sand. If you have mechanical filtration in your tank, you will trap a lot of crud doing this. Weekly, or twice weekly, cleaning of the media will help export the crud which will reduce algae growth.

[EmilyB]

Any of the "turd" colored cucumbers are not known for their toxicity. These are sand dwelling cucumbers, and not the colorful filterfeeding variety.

You don't want them to get chopped up in a powerhead tho, you're still dealing with toxic cuke guts that way.... :eek:

BTW, the tigertail can get to 24" long....not for a small tank. Mine usually splits at 18". It also poops all the sand from the front of tank out as clean poop in the back of the tank.... :rolleyes:

[steve-s]

The snails would be your safest option. If you are confident that the tank is quite stable and has been aged enough to support a cuke I would highly recommend the black knoby.

I have a pink/black, tiger tail, and the black knoby. The black by far does the best job and is the most active on the sand. I find the tiger tail stays mostly on rock and glass. The pink seems to prefer glass and pre-filter sponges, but does get the sand once in awhile.

Out of them all, the tiger tail is probably the safest when it comes to poisoning issues. That would really depend on the size of the system.

Cheers
Steve

[canadawest]

I've had a pink/black hawaiian cuke and two tiger-tail cukes in my tank for almost two years now. The Pink cuke is active day or night, while the tiger-tails are only seen at night.

I'd have to say each species works equally hard cleaning up the sand. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either as a good sand cleaning critter. I would also recommend including Nassarius snails and fighting conch (Paul's Aquarium had some in on Fri) to your sand critter list as they both do a great job stirring up the sand and cleaning it of detritus.

And yes, the darker "turd" looking cukes are all mostly harmless. I've never been concerned about mine poisining my tank, mostly because all of my powerheads and intakes have screens on them and the fact the tiger-tails are never on the glass, so no danger of climbing even near the powerheads. The hawaiian on the other hand likes hanging out on the glass, but has never yet come near enough to any of my 4 powerheads to cause me any concern.