Sea Cucumbers....any exp?

[Hawkeye]

So the cuke i have via the group buy- spent all of one day on the sand and then disappeared on me....then suddenly reappeared last night...on top of my LR structure - like in the middle of the tank. What's up with that?

The guy has been seemingly useless for my sandbed.
On the other hand the conches I picked up from OG II are doing their job superbly.

Anyways - the cuke, while small is still something I'm wondering about as I don't want it to expire behind my rock work (even for 25 nassarius snails, that's a lot of food should it expire).

So was I a dummy for buying the piece of turd? Do others find their cukes crawling on their LR??? Or is mine just acting bizarrely?

 

[REEFLECTIONS]

i've had my 2 for about 2.5 years or so, see them spurratically, some times on rock (althought seldom at the top) sometimes on glass, sometimes on sand, sometimes don't see one or the other for literally a month at a time. but they always are eating something, so no matter where they find it, they're doing some good....

 

[mikem]

i've had my 2 for about 2.5 years or so, see them spurratically, some times on rock (althought seldom at the top) sometimes on glass, sometimes on sand, sometimes don't see one or the other for literally a month at a time. but they always are eating something, so no matter where they find it, they're doing some good....

This is my experience with them too.

 

[JohnS_323]

i've had my 2 for about 2.5 years or so, see them spurratically, some times on rock (althought seldom at the top) sometimes on glass, sometimes on sand, sometimes don't see one or the other for literally a month at a time. but they always are eating something, so no matter where they find it, they're doing some good....

This is my experience with them too.

Me three.

 

[reefsandrotts]

4

 

[reeferwanabe]

5

 

[onefish2fish]

6

and then it disapears for 3 months.

 

[duijver]

I have the same experience as you with my GB cuc and I think it's about dead.

I originally had it in a tank with a sand bed, but it did nothing but hide in the upper corner of the glass. I did some asking around and I'm pretty sure that I got a filter feeder cuc instead of a sand sifting cuc. I was pretty concerned of it dying, and killing the tank, so I moved him over to my primary tank. He seemed to be very active for the first few days, climbing between rocks and the crushed coral, but then he just rolled up into a ball and stopped moving. It doesn't seem like he does anything : -) But, I was told that even sand sifter cucs can live off the LR but you will need a pretty established tank with plenty of micro fauna. I do notice that the large copopods hang onto the cuc.

Is this the same species that you have?

 

[Hawkeye]

I have the same experience as you with my GB cuc and I think it's about dead.

I originally had it in a tank with a sand bed, but it did nothing but hide in the upper corner of the glass. I did some asking around and I'm pretty sure that I got a filter feeder cuc instead of a sand sifting cuc. I was pretty concerned of it dying, and killing the tank, so I moved him over to my primary tank. He seemed to be very active for the first few days, climbing between rocks and the crushed coral, but then he just rolled up into a ball and stopped moving. It doesn't seem like he does anything : -) But, I was told that even sand sifter cucs can live off the LR but you will need a pretty established tank with plenty of micro fauna. I do notice that the large copopods hang onto the cuc.

Is this the same species that you have?

yep - nice picture!

I haven't seen my cuke since friday. Plus I traded in some LR so it's possible I traded my cuke away too. oh well. My tank is not mature but I wanted to change a cuke since they are supposedly ideal sand cleaners.

 

[REEFLECTIONS]

thats exactly the same as my 2

 

[mikem]

I also have the big black one that does nothing but clean the sand. He's the one everyone should get.

 

[panmanmatt]

Not all species of cukes are sand sifting species. Some are filter feeders and just trap particulate out of the water column. Some will burrow into the sand and remain there with their feeding appendages exposed collecting food.

 

[RobbiesReef]

the ones i usually get also hide most of the time. by the way thats a nice one.

 

[duijver]

Not all species of cukes are sand sifting species. Some are filter feeders and just trap particulate out of the water column. Some will burrow into the sand and remain there with their feeding appendages exposed collecting food.

Oops.. I thought I mentioned that this guy was a suspected filter feeder. Thanks for adding that in!

 

[REEFLECTIONS]

see, but i have that one and he gobbles up the sand and poops out the little sand bricks.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Mine went everywhere when it was smaller. Now is spends more time on the sand. Though it is not the size of the monster that Mike has. They are excellent IMO. And yes they vanish on occasion.

 

[duijver]

see, but i have that one and he gobbles up the sand and poops out the little sand bricks.

I moved him back to the 15g mantis tank and he's now gobbling up sand and pooping it out as well. When I put him back into that tank it took him about a week to get over his fear of the mantis and he started doing his thing. When I first saw him on the ground I thought that the mantis struck him - I didn't realize they literally squeezed the sand out of them. lol

 

[ynotme4886]

Here is a pic of mine.....my wife calls him the roaming turd.

Mine is a sand cleaner as you can see from the rabbit pellet things behind him. I have had him for about a year and he is a good 6 in long when he stretches out all the way.

Mine never hides.....he wanders around all day....sometimes he climbs the rocks a bit but not too much. Ehhh ugly thing but he does a good job at moving sand....its a slow process and really nasty to watch.

BTW did you know you can eat them and they are considered a delicacy....nasty looking when they are cooked