Cucumber

[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

[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..

[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

[Gujustud]

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





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/issu...003/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.