Cucumber

Devildoc · Oct 16, 2014

I have a pink sea cucumber and has moved all around my glass until he/she found its spot on front glass. Its feeders are always out morning day or night I feed 30ml of reef snow every other day all corals look great except my clove polyps they seem to be shrinking aswell as the cuc.. But that is my concern because its gotten almost 2in smaller then when I got it 2 yrs ago.. I can't figure it out any help would be great thank you.. I can give any info you will need ..

Tank is 240gallon, 75gallon sump, x5500 ro skimmer, 3 triton 5 return pumps, 2 wp40s not sure lbs of live rock I know I need more though. 2 maxspect razors and a ocean revive LEDs for lights. 5in sandbed. Seneye reef monitor

Livestock: havens wrasse, Cinnamon clown, oc clown (yes they get along great by staying on their side of the tank). Hippo tang, kole tang, foxface, 2 anthias, 3 PJ cardnels, clean up crew and a cleaner, and some peppermint shrimp.

Water quality. Temp78, alk9.7, cal-450, amm- .o1 phos-.2 nitrate 0, ph-8.1

If I can help with any other numbers please let me know thanks everyone

Devildoc · Oct 16, 2014

Anyones opinion?

Squishie89 · Oct 16, 2014

Is anyone picking on the cucumber?

Devildoc · Oct 16, 2014

No nothing swims around it but the cardnels and they could care less about it. It is always open except for about an hour or two a day

tyler1503 · Oct 16, 2014

I have next to no experience with cucumbers, but can't they shrivel up real small, like a few inches long and the very same individual stretch out to be like two foot long or something? Almost like a slinky.
If it is cucumbers I'm thinking of (it may not be cucumbers, I could just be confusing myself here lol) then couldn't appearing different sizes just be normal behaviour?

ritter6788 · Oct 16, 2014

I don't mean to be so blunt but it's likely starving. Those pink sea cucumbers are tough to keep alive long term in a tank. I don't think anyone knows exactly what they eat and even if they do they likely need a constant supply of it. I kept one years ago and it did the same thing. Climbed to the same spot up in the flow but got increasingly smaller over time and died. Not saying no one has never success with them but I'm not sure our reef setups are ideal for them.

Seeing as how they tend to move towards higher flow I'm guessing they feed on phytoplankton or very small plankton like Rotifers. Anything like cyclopeeze or mysis would be too large for it. I'm just guessing here though.

Even if you are feeding these things the proper foods I don't think they have a stomach to store food so they would need a constant supply of food to keep them alive.

Devildoc · Oct 17, 2014

ritter6788 said:
I don't mean to be so blunt but it's likely starving. Those pink sea cucumbers are tough to keep alive long term in a tank. I don't think anyone knows exactly what they eat and even if they do they likely need a constant supply of it. I kept one years ago and it did the same thing. Climbed to the same spot up in the flow but got increasingly smaller over time and died. Not saying no one has never success with them but I'm not sure our reef setups are ideal for them.

Seeing as how they tend to move towards higher flow I'm guessing they feed on phytoplankton or very small plankton like Rotifers. Anything like cyclopeeze or mysis would be too large for it. I'm just guessing here though.

Even if you are feeding these things the proper foods I don't think they have a stomach to store food so they would need a constant supply of food to keep them alive.

That's what I have read as well. I know they pick out of the water column. Their biggest source of food from what I have found is zoo and photo plankton. That's why I use reef snow.. I think I might take it to the LFS and see if I can donate him to a better tank that has a fuller water column

SamsReef · Oct 17, 2014

I have found the cucumber to be pretty hardy in my tank. It was right in middle of the tank. now it has moved in a corner. the tentacles are always out except when my long nose hawk decides to sit on it. I have fed mysis directly in its tentacle and it can gobble the whole thing. try feeding bigger particles...not reef snow. it grabs food from water column not filter....best of luck. i can take a video of feeding if you would like.

SamsReef · Oct 17, 2014

one more thing - I introduced this critter only after one year of the tank being up and running.

vtecintegra · Oct 18, 2014

My black cucumber just died after 2 years. Slowly shrank from a foot long to about 5 inches. Long term I don't think the right food is available in a closed system like a tank.

clownfitch · Oct 18, 2014

I've got a tiger tail sea cucumber. He's a sand sifter so there is plenty of food for it. Cool creatures.

shornik · Oct 18, 2014

I've read that cucumbers can be toxic to to fish, does anyone have any experience with this?

iretthepirate · Oct 18, 2014

Are u turning off the flow and spot feeding so it can get food more easily

Devildoc · Oct 18, 2014

vtecintegra said:
My black cucumber just died after 2 years. Slowly shrank from a foot long to about 5 inches. Long term I don't think the right food is available in a closed system like a tank.

That is what mine is doing

Devildoc · Oct 18, 2014

I turn off my skimmer and my wp40s when I feed but my returns stay on. And yes I target feed but didn't start that till this week he took sum pretty decent size peaces today..