Do cucumbers lay eggs?

kellyjn · Jul 29, 2010

Hi all,

Do cucumbers lay eggs?

I have two cucs in my tank. They've always just kind of done their own thing. They've been MIA for the past couple days. This evening they appear both pretty together and I notice something strange looking. Are these possible eggs?

I don't have any fish that poo that big. I've seen the cucs eat and poo before and it is usually little sand pellets that just crumble apart. These are the same size as their usual poo, but appears tan with zero trace of any sand in them. They are maybe alittle larger than the large freshwater pellets, if that helps with size comparison.

I'm going to leave it be and see what happens.

What do you all think?

I hope this isn't some kind of cuc poo they do periodically and I'm going to look stupid asking if poo are eggs. :)

Sorry for the blueish pics......actinics on only + iphone

guia x · Jul 29, 2010

Cucs pick up sand with the tentacles on their mouths, swallow it, and then poop them out on the other end. It's just the sand that they cleaned up. They will break down and look normal again in a day or two.

kellyjn · Jul 29, 2010

kellyjn said:
I've seen the cucs eat and poo before and it is usually little sand pellets that just crumble apart. These are the same size as their usual poo, but appears tan with zero trace of any sand in them. They are maybe alittle larger than the large freshwater pellets, if that helps with size comparison.

I've seen them eat and poop before. Their poop is usually this size, but is like 90% sand. I've never seen them poop, and the poop not contain any sand though.

Troylee · Jul 29, 2010

gross!!!! lol
i don't think they lay eggs... a local reefer here has had one for along time and it will drop it's tail or back end and produce a second....

GreshamH · Jul 29, 2010

I was visiting Sanjay a couple years ago and one of the people helping take care of the Penn State tank left the heater off and the heater exchanger on cold. The tank got pretty **** cold. When we arrived we noticed this and then noticed the massive black Cuc they have really extending itself vertically. I grabbed my camara phone and took some pics of it releasing a ton of little pink egg looking things. It wasn't the typical "guts" you see them spew out in stress, quite the opposite (individual little round egg looking things). I can't find those now, but Sanjay will back up the story. Eggs? Dunno but I suspect so.

kellyjn · Jul 29, 2010

They are gone!!! I don't know what to think of this....

guia x · Jul 30, 2010

kellyjn said:
They are gone!!! I don't know what to think of this....

Read my first post again. I told you it's just sand that they processed and pooped out. It's nothing and like I said the sand will break apart and look normal again after a day or two. I have five cucs and they all do this. It's not eggs. They are just clumps of sand that they ate and cleaned up of food and detritus.

KLR · Jul 30, 2010

The ysplit to reproduce from what ive read..

my lfs got in a yellow that split in half and..

Wa La 2 cucumbers

Reefsurfing · Jul 30, 2010

ya, its just sand, dont freak out they are supposed to go away.

SSA · Jul 30, 2010

As others have said that's just cucumber poo. When they reproduce they either asexually split or they broadcast spawn eggs.

kellyjn · Jul 30, 2010

guia x said:
Read my first post again. I told you it's just sand that they processed and pooped out. It's nothing and like I said the sand will break apart and look normal again after a day or two. I have five cucs and they all do this. It's not eggs. They are just clumps of sand that they ate and cleaned up of food and detritus.

Read both my posts again. I'll say it again..... I've seen them poop before and are very familiar with what the poop usually looks like. This was either 100% solid poop, or the sand was all in the center surrounded by poop. THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE GRAIN OF SAND IN IT AT ALL VISIBLE.

I can post a regular poop picture later.....The sand in the poop is very obvious. It's usually 80-90% sand with some poop holding the sand in a clump.

Has anyone seen them poop and not contain any sand at all?

guia x · Jul 30, 2010

kellyjn said:
Read both my posts again. I'll say it again..... I've seen them poop before and are very familiar with what the poop usually looks like. This was either 100% solid poop, or the sand was all in the center surrounded by poop. THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE GRAIN OF SAND IN IT AT ALL VISIBLE.

I can post a regular poop picture later.....The sand in the poop is very obvious. It's usually 80-90% sand with some poop holding the sand in a clump.

Has anyone seen them poop and not contain any sand at all?

:tongue: My bad. I don't know what I was reading. I was just going by the photos and somehow I thought your second post that was quoting yourself was made by another person. Haha. Sorry. It's hard to read from my iphone sometimes. Anyway, then I don't really know what you are talking about then. All the cuc poop I've seen has been with sand. My Kole tang has large poop like that but not all bunched up like cuc poop. Just long strands of poop.

drainbamage · Jul 30, 2010

That looks identical to my cucumbers poop.

AquaNerd1 · Jul 30, 2010

drainbamage said:
That looks identical to my cucumbers poop.

+1...looks like cucumber poop. i guess it's possible they were eating detritus off of the surface of the sand and may have consumed fewer sand grains.

Reef Goddess · Aug 29, 2010

Well I don't know about cucumber eggs, but I keep several cucumbers in my tanks and once in awhile I'll see some really tiny cucumbers and I know I didn't buy them. If my large cucumbers have split then its just a tiny piece of themselves, not a 50/50 split. I don't get that many hitchhikers with new corals, so I figure that my existing cucumbers are reproducing somehow. I just choose to let some things remain a mystery. You should have poked the questionable poo to see if it was poo or not.