To all sea cuke keepers...

[zhenya]

Did any of you notice anything like what you about to see in this pictures left on the sand bed after your cuke made a pass? I think this are fecal matter left by the cuke but this is the first time I see it in this form and shape...
Most of the time it is a simple pile of clean sand that is left behind, so it sorta makes me wonder if it is the cuke or maybe someone else making this...


You can see sand grains in this picture but I also see some detritus surrounding the grains.

[wozza]

maybe some kind of marine guinea pig???

[FireEater]

I have 2 large Yellow Cukes, 1 large Pink Cuke and 2 Tigertails and they all leave the poop just like that.

That is before it breaks back apart. I see it coming out of them all the time like that.

[My2heartboys]

I have a tiger tail cucumber and all I ever see is pretty clean sand coming out. In reading on them this time before owning my second (first one died because my sandbed was not mature enough) they eat the micro algae in the sand and cannot handle animal based food. Just as a question, could you have more of that in your sandbed than what you thought? Maybe as an accident?

Anne

[zhenya]

Thanks all!

Anne,

There is nothing accidental about having animal based foods in the sand bed when you have carnivorous fish in aquarium. Foods that I feed my fish include animal based foods along with algae, so it is very possible that the cuke wondered into a part of the sand where there was some detritus accumulating.
I haven't replenished my sand dwelling snail population in a couple of years, perhaps it is time I do so now.

[My2heartboys]

Please understand that I am only guessing. There is not much known about these guys digestion at this point and I suspect that this is the reason why there is great debate about owning one in an aquarium setting. I was just trying to recall what I had read of the article by Ron Shimmick (sp?). I do know that my tigertail loves to stick around the area of our aquarium where most of the grape calurpa is at if that helps at all.

Anne

[Samper]

At what point can one consider a sandbed mature enough?

[Ninong]

At what point can one consider a sandbed mature enough?

A sand bed is mature at 18 months. From the time you start it up until around 18 months, it's still maturing.

[Samper]

I am planning on adding a cucumber to the 180 once the sandbed is mature enough. I have plenty of open sandbed and think I can support one in time. What species would you guys recommend for me to research?

[FireEater]

Get the yellow ones. They are more active than any of them.



I would get two of them at least for that size tank. All they do is eat detritus 24/7.

[Ninong]

I am planning on adding a cucumber to the 180 once the sandbed is mature enough. I have plenty of open sandbed and think I can support one in time. What species would you guys recommend for me to research?

When I said a sand bed is considered mature after 18 months, I was talking about how long it takes starting out with a dead deep sand bed before it has a wide array of diverse sand bed infauana in relatively stable populations -- assuming you actually did something to build up such populations. This was not to imply that you must wait 18 months before adding certain sand bed clean-up crew critters, such as a sand cuke. For a 180-gal tank with a decent amount of available sand bed surface, I would suggest no more than one rather small sand cuke in the genus Holothuria or Stichopus. If it is still alive and has increased in size after seven or eight months, then you might consider adding a second one.

Here is what Dr. Ron Shimek has to say about these:

Holothuroids

The final group of echinoderms to be discussed is the sea cucumbers, or holothuroids, affectionately known as "cukes." This is another group with which aquarists have been largely unsuccessful at long-term maintenance. The types of cukes available to aquarists include a rather diverse taxonomic array; their husbandry, however, is rather straightforward. In general, regardless of their taxonomy, are two functional types of sea cucumbers are found in hobbyists' tanks. These are the filter-feeding types, such as the infamous sea apples, but also including a number of others, and the bottom moppers, such as the tiger tail cukes and several other species. There appears to be no real insurmountable problem with maintaining these animals other than giving them sufficient amounts of food.

[...]

Bottom mopping sea cucumbers, such as the various species of Holothuria or Stichopus often kept in tanks, are harder to keep alive over the long term. These animals use short feeding tentacles to sweep or mop the substrate to collect various types of detritus. True detritus is defined as being of algal and plant origin and these animals often seem to be specialized feeders on such material. Animal-based foods, and occasionally small animals, will often pass through their guts undigested. The problem with detritus as a food is that it is of very low nutritional quality, both in nature and in aquaria. Consequently, these animals tend to need several square feet of substrate to forage over to get their daily square meals, and the bigger the cuke, the more square footage it needs. Large ones need a lot of sandy substrate! Generally, when added to reef tanks, these animals often slowly, but surely fade away. Given enough food, however, they may grow, and some of them may reproduce by fission.

P.S. -- The longest I was able to keep a relatively small Holothurian alive in my 120-gal tank with 6" DSB was about 20 months.

[Papa Doug]

A cuke poop close up. Nice pic Gene. I just love how anyone can take such a great macro like that.

[My2heartboys]

I would recommend the Tiger Tail variety. I read one of the reef tank specialists (don't remember which one---maybe the same one that recommends breeding mini stars for harlequinn shrimp food instead of using choc. chip stars and the like for them) and they said that this variety seems to be more hardy and more likely to survive in captivity. One of the reasons is that they come from native waters and are spared some of the stress and trauma of being captured and transported.

When you finally do put one in, keep in mind that these guys feed on the microalgae in the sandbed. I usually purposely overfeed garlic algae pellets about 2-3 times a week knowing that our cucumber will eventually eat them.

Anne

[zhenya]

I tend to agree on the tiger tail cukes, mine been in my tank since 05 without any issues of starvation. Although mostly nocturnal they seem to do pretty well on keeping the sand bed clean, at least in my tank it seems to be the case.
Granted, those are not much to look at but they do their job well.

[FireEater]

Not sure how accurate or how much one wants to believe in Ron Shimek's article on these cukes.

I have had the cukes I mentioned above in my first post for quite some time without problems. The two Yellow Cukes like the one I pictured have grown and flourished for a little over 4 years now going through two tank change overs.

The Pink one has been in the tank for about 3 years as well as the two Tiger Tails. One being in there for 2 years.

They are excellent cleaners as all I have ever seen was dirty sand go in and clean sand come out.

I'm not saying his article is right or wrong, but with things changing everyday and us learning more more about the livestock we add to our systems, I would just use the article as one of many opinions.

Pink one making poo


Yellow one making poo


Yellow one front


Yellow one back making poo


Mine work 24/7 they are not nocturnal in my system. They have grown to about 6 to 7 inches each. They are slow growers though.

The two Tiger Tails are nocturnal though. You can see them in the evening when they start to emerge from under their rocks. Their tails stay attached to their homes until they are ready to move to another spot.

The Tiger Tails are real skinny and do not get as big as the Yellow Cukes, though they look almost the same in color, except they have white stripes on them. Hence the name Tiger Tails.