Cucumber

[roverT]

Hi, just wondering if anyone knew if there is a NON-TOXIC sea cucumber out there?

[UnderWorldAquatics]

I believe all cucumbers have some level of toxicity, otherwise they dont have a chance from a defensive aspect...

what are you worried about, I havent ever heard of a dead cucumber causing a problem, and I have heard of alot of dead cucumbers...

[Namscam]

i love cucumbers....just stay away from sea apples

[roverT]

how much harm can they do. I was thinking about a large black cuc. But don't want a wipeout, tank is 135 gallon

[Namscam]

I have a black one in my tank right now..its pretty large and also one of those nice yellow one that just stick on the side of a rock,...they both havent done any damage yet but hey none has died yet.. :mrgreen: so i wouldnt know, but i heard those yellow ones are more toxic than the black on... :sad:

[LostMind]

I had a black one die on me, nothing else was harmed in the tank. I just removed the carcass asap and all was good.

I have a black one and a tiger tail in my 120 right now...

everything is cool....

[StirCrazy]

I have two tiger tails in my tank, they are always in the rocks and never on the glass.

Steve

[Seriak]

I have a yellow one and a tigertail. The tigertail made it through my disaster unscathed. They are tough little buggers.

I wouldn't worry about the toxicity level.

[mnoll406]

They are definately toxic, but it depends how they die. I had my tank setup for about 6 months, and had a pink/black cucumber about 8" in my refuge. The cucumber crawled up the glass into the compartment with my skimmer pump (mag12). As murphys law would have it, I was out of town for 3 days, cucumber got sucked in to the skimmer pump, and about $300 worth of fish were dead. If I would have been home, I could of done water changes and added carbon. I was able to add fish a week later, after a big water change, and lots of skimming. Corals were fine and no other problems. So the moral of the story is, don't let them get sucked into pumps. I still keep cucumbers(nothing better for your sandbed), just have intake guards for my return, and skimmer pump.

Mike

[Quinn]

As Mike noted and as explained to me the other day by a friend, a cuke will generally only release it's toxins if it is extremely/traumatically stressed. A cuke that starves to death will not, and often even a cuke that dies of other causes in aquaria will not, as they will use available resources first to simply survive (ie. continue cell production) and if those needs are fulfilled, they will begin worrying about defenses, ie. toxicity. Similar to the psychologist Abraham Maslow's Pyramid of Needs - survival needs (food, water) come before defense needs (shelter, spears, sniper rifles).

[Skimmerking]

My buddy Scott on aquarium pros had his whole tank taken out from a Black CUC from the Power head. But it seems that when they are chopped up that's when they do the damage...

FWIW

I have a black in my 75 gal and will get a tigertail to add

mike

[roverT]

OK thanks I'm going to get 2, mabey 1 :smile:

[Chad]

I know Big Al's in Richmond has about 3 - 5 Dead Cucumbers in their systems.. Or atleast they look dead to me with their tissue all open and stuff.. not sure what type they are but they are red in colour. Seems they must not be too toxic when they just die considering their tankmates are still surviving..

:confused:

[dekay]

Anyone know if they'll eat hair algae on the sand? I'll be very motivated to get one if they do, preferably the yellow ones.

If anyone has pics of how their powerheads are protected, please post as well.

[Quinn]

From what I know, the small yellow ones are filter-feeders and won't help your hair algae problem as such. I would work on locating the source of the algae rather than just trying to deal with the symptomology.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Mike, I guess that means getting shredded in a power head qualifies as "traumatic"... I wouldn't want to go that way either...

Doug

[Skimmerking]

yup you hit it on the nose

MIke :mrgreen:

[Gujustud]

I picked up this ugly guy today ;) Click on pic for bigger picture.

http://www.ditchmond.com/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_DSCF0728.JPG (http://www.ditchmond.com/gallery/albums/userpics/DSCF0728.JPG)

http://www.ditchmond.com/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_DSCF0732.JPG (http://www.ditchmond.com/gallery/albums/userpics/DSCF0732.JPG)

Excuse the eggcrate, my tank is being moved this weekend.

[Diomedes]

I have seen a couple of very healthy tanks lose their fish compliment mere days after the addition of sea cucumbers...after years without a hitch. Both tanks contained Centropyge spp. angels, but I am less than sure that they stressed out the cukes...one tank had definite evidence of evisceration. Neither tanks had powerheads in them, but rather large overflows which neither cucumbers were near when I arrived...
One of the cukes was a pink Holothuria edulis?

On another note...Cucumbers can die in your system with no apparent ill effects because the Holothurin toxin is almost exclusively contained in the tissues and organs. Cucumbers do not release a cloud of soluble toxin into the water. This defense mechanism would be useless on an actual reef...The toxic effects come from fish consuming tissues, tubules, gametes or ground up pieces of organs.

As far as my experience Cukes don't eat hair algae.

an in-depth discussion of cukes:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/invert.htm


Stephen

[kari]

I had a black one get munched up in a power head with no visible ill effects in the tank. It grew a new intake end and is now busy cleaning another reefers sand bed.