Sea cucmumber poop, eggs, or worse?

[coreygrrt]

I got a sea cucumber about 5 days ago. Not the most active thing and at times I swore it was dead. It start squirming around a bunch not long before this post. I walk away, come back and see this pile of goop, rings, and a brownish either poop or baby sea cucumber like thing in the center.

Not sure if it's harmless poop, awesome score for a baby cucumber, or ejected material from its body that might be toxic to the tank.

Help!! First sea cucumber and unsure if I should remove ASAP or leave it be.

 

[Sarcazian]

Following along. It does not appear to be poop since the sand cuc's normally poop out clean sand. At least in my experience.

I've had filter feeding cuc's as well, but I can't remember seeing them poop as frequently (or ever) like the sand ones.

 

[jorwill]

Following. Curious myself lol

 

[Sam816]

any updates? is your tank ok? did you manage to find what was your cucumber excreting?

 

[coreygrrt]

I believe it was the intestines of the sea cucumber. I read online that they do it to scare off predators. In my case I think it did it right before it died, because it definitely died.

This is going to probably sound like the most newb mistake ever but hey if it happened to me then it can probably happen to anyone.

I got into the hobby from a friend. Bought a lot of the same equipment he had including the same brand refractometer. Long story short, I took a jar of my water to a LFS to check parameters. One of the first things they checked was salinity, turned out to be 1.038!! I took that same jar to another LFS and same results. Spent the next two weeks slowly bringing my salinity down with my new (working) hydrometer and refractometer. Now everything is working just fine!

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

There's a tropic Marin hydrometer on brs for 40 bucks. Super precise apparently. But you just float it in the tank or a bucket of fresh water. No reagents or anything needed

 

[vetteguy53081]

Its evisceration. Its what ?? A sea cucumber behavior wherein they can EXPEL their guts THROUGH their body wall. Yuck. AWESOME. The most awkward super power ever!
Its often associated with defense but not always. They also do this seasonally , when feeding and even digesting mud they eat. It often expels those viscera (which are often quite sticky, gross and inundated with toxic body chemicals) towards oncoming predators-which usually include fish and hungry starfish.
To sum it up, the intestines in cucumbers will often build up metabolic waste and associated wear and tear" type chemicals. A regular evisceration could conveniently and economically excrete or purge these chemicals (along with the intestine and other viscera material) causing what you see.

 

[coreygrrt]

There's a tropic Marin hydrometer on brs for 40 bucks. Super precise apparently. But you just float it in the tank or a bucket of fresh water. No reagents or anything needed

Thanks for the heads up. I might do that. I have 3 right now lol. My float in tank one from fluval doesn't seem to be working well at all

 

[Lerequin]

Hi, this seems to be mucus that cucumbers shed from time to time to clean themselves.
“Holothuria edulis protects itself with mucus, sometimes very thick, which it secretes and covers its entire body. She gets rid of it from time to time to free herself from her parasites. It would therefore not be a "skin" or any disease, but a usual and hygienic cleaning process.”
Source: DORIS (french)