What is this a slug?

[pinocchio]

Found this in my filter sock and wanted to get an ID before I flush it. It’s about inch long and seems to move like a slug.

 

[pinocchio]

Doing some research it actually looks like a sea cucumber based on some internet pics. It for sure has some feather-y looking things at the head of it.

 

[Cell]

Tiger tail cucumber?

 

[Cell]

Don't flush!

 

[El Toro]

Finding critters like this after all precautions is just baffling. I inspect and dip every coral and QT all new fish and mollusks. Yet just last week I have been infested with Red Planaria Flatworms.

So I bought a yellow wrasse. He's not rid me of them yet.

 

[Cell]

@ISpeakForTheSeas may be able to confirm tiger tail ID.

 

[pinocchio]

If it’s a tiger tail is is safe to put back in tank?

 

[Cell]

Tank size? Age? Sandbed?

 

[pinocchio]

ProStar 90. About a year. Sand bed yes, about 2” deep

 

[pinocchio]

I just did a big water change last week, disturbed a lot of the sand bed which probably brought this guy up. He’s moving around a ton in the bucket I have him in so I’d like to get him back in if he’s reef safe

 

[Cell]

If correct ID, then yes it's totally suitable for your tank. The only warning would be they do split and can multiply over time. But they are awesome creatures. They eat dirty sand and poop out clean sand.

 

[Cell]

@WheatToast can probably confirm as well.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

@ISpeakForTheSeas may be able to confirm tiger tail ID.

I'd guess Holothuria impatiens - generally known as the Bottleneck or Impatient Cucumber, though I've seen it offered as the Tiger Tail Cucumber too (though, to my understanding, Tiger Tail Cucumber is generally used to refer to Holothuria thomasi).

Yeah, as long as you don't have anything super aggressive that would pick on them, sand-sifting cukes should be good CUC. Some general feeding info for sand-sifting cukes:

With regards to the sediment feeding cucumbers, as mentioned, you can ghost feed the tank and they'll do just fine on that. For example, the Chocolate Chip Sea Cucumber (Isostichopus badionotus) has been bred in captivity on the following diets*:
"Two feeding protocols were tested: In the first year, the broodstock were fed with commercial tilapia and rabbit feed which was ground, supplemented with Spirulina powder, and blended with disinfected beach sand (30g food/kg sand). In the second year, the food was changed to a mixture of ground Ulva sp., Sargassum sp., and Macrocystis sp. meals (Baja Kelp, Ensenanada, B.C., Mexico) blended with disinfected beach sand (30g algae mixture/kg sand). The food was changed every third day to prevent fungus formation."

I don't remember the other species I've looked at at the moment, but, generally speaking, sand sifting sea cucumbers are not picky about what they eat (though the food likely needs to be relatively decently sized so as to fit in with the sediment they're sifting - for example, the food they fed to the juvenile sea cucumbers when they reached 3 cm in the study above was sieved 55 at microns). Some easy foods you could offer that should work even for smaller cucumber species would be things like TDO Chromaboost Type A and Spirulina powder like used in the study I referenced.

I've seen a removable dish of sand mixed with food used successfully in sea cucumber aquaculture,

Edit: The study referenced in the quote above:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jwas.12061

I'd try to get the food in the ~100-500 micron range, preferably closer to 50-200 microns (especially if the cuke isn't full grown). I know foods in that size can be hard to come by - Otohime and TDO Chromaboost offer pellets in that general range, and they're amongst the best pellet feeds on the market (no pellets on the market for hobbyists are as good as fresh food or a high quality frozen food).

I don't know the Florida Sea Cucumber's (Holothuria floridana's) preferred food size, but most other species in the genus prefer feeds that range from ~60-200 microns, with a handful of exceptions that prefer either medium-small foods (~200-600 microns) or huge foods (~2,000-3,500 microns).*

Pretty much every pellet on the market will contain grains of some variety (almost always to act as a binding agent to hold the pellets together; sometimes also to provide enough calories/energy to make the food an efficient feed) - if used in small enough quantities, it's not really an issue, but when there's too much grain (too many carbohydrates) it can cause some nutrition issues.

For the spirulina, you can buy spirulina powder which will probably be closer to the right size for the cuke.

*Source:

Sophistication in a seemingly simple creature: a review of wild holothurian nutrition in marine ecosystems - PMC

Holothurians are marine invertebrates that are among the most widespread benthic megafauna communities by both biomass and abundance in shallow‐water and deep‐sea ecosystems, their functions supporting important ecological services worldwide. ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Cell]

Color didn't seem typical to me for what I know as a tiger tail. Definitely matched up with the bottleneck ID, which is a new creature to me. Thanks ispeakfortheseas!