[rededteck]

Any of you out there successful with cucumbers in a reef? I would like to know what species and the pro's and con's you have had with them? Are they hardy or hard to keep?

Would also like to know if any species of fish would bother them

[Rin]

I have 2 tiger tails. Very industrious, They keep my sand clean. They tend to pile it up in places where I can't get to it. No problems keeping them with Tangs, Fairie Wrasses, Lawnmower Blennies, Brittle stars, cleaner shrimp, or Maroon Clowns.

[rededteck]

Thanks for the post!!!! Ever had one die in your tank. Was wondering if they excrete any nasty material which may affect the fish or corals?

I am looking for a good creature to go through the sand.

[ravenmore]

Ran this by Dr. Shimek recently. He said most of them are pretty benign. Some of the brighter colored ones like sea apples can be pretty bad though. Tiger tails are a good choice. H. Edulis (pink and grey colored) is also good if you have a fair amount of open sand bed....

[eses]

I had one die in my tank when I was new and uneducated. I didn't realize it was dying until it had been dead for a good day or so, it produced this very stringy mucus stuff that looked like strands of elmers glue with the stickyness of super-glue. I had camel shrimp at the time, and several of them got pretty well wrapped up in it, as well as my arrow crab. It was very hard to remove, but I didn't notice any actually toxic effects from it.

I did just have damsels in the tank and carbon running 24/7 so either the fish didn't notice the toxins, or it was removed by the carbon. I had no corals at the time, so I don't know what the results would have been. Not good I would assume if it got wrapped around something like a Xenia or some form of branching hard-coral.