Sea Cucumber

[Platehead]

I was given a sea cucumber last winter when I started my tank. Gotten close to a foot long. I was reading this past week that they can cause a tank crash by defecating in the tank as a natural protection mechanism. Should I be concerned and try getting it out of my tank?
thx

 

[Jocko]

Well it's not so much defecating as it is disemboweling themselves. But anyhow, a foot long?? Wow! Normally I wouldn't be concerned but that's a serious cuc for a tank! How big is your tank?!?

 

[Km2]

Sea cucumbers are a good thing to have as part of your clean up crew, they can puke there guts if threatened and cause alot of damage if not caught in time. However as long as there aren't any aggressive fish picking at it or any large open powerhead intakes it shouldn't puke.

Also hopefully its a normal type of cucumber and not a sea apple, which are much harder to care for, tend to puke easier, and are more toxic

 

[rnyce]

i lost my 75 gallon because of a sea cucumber.
mine was small and got over a foot long. i had my 75 for almost ten years. I left the house in the am and when i came a couple of hours later, the whole tank was dead. The sea cuc died and turned the tank super toxic. SOme fish lived but everything else just got gone. be careful they are cool but dangerous

 

[Platehead]

Its a 29 gallon tank, and it is not a sea apple. It looks like this:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=sea+...ndsp=40&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:277&biw=1680&bih=886

This may or may not work.

 

[dcforester1]

I have had one that has since turned into 4 in the last 2yrs. I took one and put it in my sons 14gal cube. His died, but never caused any problems. Mine have been fine cleaning up a lot of sand with no ill effects. The only problem I have with them is that when they "eat" the sand, it gets deposited out the other end. Not really a problem until they get real long, and it goes behind your rocks.

GoodLuck Derek

 

[jdemarco]

If the picture is correct it is a tiger tail cucumber and they much much less likley to cause any toxicity problems with you tank like some others. Lots of people would actually recommend them as good members of cleanup crew.