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).
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-Quinn
Man, n. ...His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth, and Canada. - A. Bierce, Devil's Dictionary, 1906
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