This is a first

[tholleyh46]

My sea cucumber decided to stroll through the aquascaping. This is a first, he's gotten kind of large - hope its a fad. Had snails/crabs knock things over like its cool; this guy could take that frustration to a new level.

Anyone else experience this?

[Ninong]

What sort of a sand bed do you have for it? In other words, how large is your tank and does it have a lot of exposed sand?

I tried keeping one of these twice but the longest I was able to keep one going in a 120-gal tank with a 6" DSB was about 15 months. I suspect they need at least a 180-gal tank with lots of exposed sand to thrive. And I'm talking about one that is no larger than about 10" long in the 180-gal tank.

They need lots and lots of sand that is relatively 'dirty' -- a fine particle sand bed that is undisturbed. The sand goes in the front end and out the back end and while it's passing through, the cuke digests the bacterial film and tiny microscopic organisms that we can't even see that live on and in the sand (in between the particles).

IME, it's not a good sign when they start leaving the sand bed to wander around. It might mean that they're hungry and that they can't find enough to eat on the sand bed.

Good luck!

[tholleyh46]

I've got a 120G display w/a 40G fuge, they're in the display its appx 48x24x24. I have taken up some of the exposed sand with more corals, rocks, etc - I will try to go back and build 'up' instead of out. I thought they were doing fairly well, I actually have two of them, and they were both fairly small when acquired - they have gotten fairly large since. Last night when viewing with a red lens flashlight I found them both in the rocks. One is a dark color brown, almost black so the yellow one is just easier to spot. The sandbed is deeper in the fuge, but relatively small with regards to the exposed area so I think for now I'll keep them in the display. May have to put them up for adoption I suppose. My pod life has quadrupled so I think the tank is aging well, but I am also battling red slime somewhat and have been 'disturbing' the sandbed a good bit in doing so; perhaps that has contributed as well.

[Seige]

IME, it's not a good sign when they start leaving the sand bed to wander around. It might mean that they're hungry and that they can't find enough to eat on the sand bed.

Good luck!

My Conch "Snow White" did the same thing hoping along on top of the sand bed. It was fine under the surface until about 10 days after I added the goby. I had no idea the goby would clean so much sand. My guess at the time was that it didn't have enough food in the sand and tried to supplement with algae waffers but it ignored them. Conch died a couple days later.

[FireEater]

Both of my Yellow Cukes stay on the sandbed thank goodness. I've had them for years and they are now over 8" or so and fat as can be.

Best sandbed cleaners IMO as dirty sand goes in, clean sand comes out.