Holothuriidae

[urville]

It is my understanding from several websites that there are two species of cucumber that are not outright poisonous and harder to upset.

By that, I mean specifically that I have read the following information at a few sites, meaning more than 5. Though, i have read at a similar number of sites that make no mention of this information and blanket the entire family which implies that the following info is not true.

I am considering a cuke for my refugium or possibly the display, which only contains scuds/mysis, tiny brittles, pods, and snails. One reason I am considering the display is that currently I have a sand sifting angel which I am sure is hard on my sand fauna/life.

I do as a side question wonder if the cuke is just as hard on it or not? Can anyone confirm the following?

1. That Holothuria edulis or Halodeima edulis, commonly known as Pink & Black cukes sift sand and do not contain the toxic tubules of culvier that most Holo's have, but that it can eject it's stomach, which if eaten is harmful. It's commonly known as the edible sea cucumber in that it is considered for some a delicacy thanks to it being one of the few Holo's again that does not contain the same toxin system.

2. That Colochirus robustus contains a much more mild form of toxin.

3. That Holothuria hilla or Thymiosycia hilla, aka tiger tail cucumbers, AND Holothuria atra or Halodeima atraalso, aka black cucumbers do not contain tubules of culvier just like the edible edulis above, but also carry the waning of expelling thier stomachs.

 

[urville]

Please forgive the following typo/word issues.

Sand sifting angel should be sand sifting star, by two cucumber species I meant 4, and finally my refugium only contains that limited livestock. the display is obviously more prolific though i tend towards docile animals if at all possible.
I do have mithrix crabs though.

 

[urville]

Does anyone have a good site for maybe searchable science journals on marine animals? I've looked and looked and I cant seem to find one that isnt pay, but maybe someone here has one from college courses or something. lol, I think I need a marine biologist

 

[snorvich]

I too would like to hear answers to these questions.

 

[urville]

anyone? does anyone have these or has kept these even? Where is the Randy farley-holmes of invertebrate knowledge?

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

i have a black and pink cucumber, he's about 5-6" long. he didn't do anything for nearly a month and then all the sudden he started doing his job, for the most part he just circles this large rock in my tank pooping sand . but this week he's finally decided to start exploring. he does a great job though very slow

 

[urville]

Thanks for the info! i hope some more people chime in with thier info as well!

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

This is not any solid information just my experience..

I use to have yellow sand sifting cucumber in my 120. There for a while it didn't sift sand, I thought that it was just a filter feeder. It started to turn white in some spots. I think it was starving so I spot fed it for a while. Then the white spots dissapeared. Right before I sold it to another reefer. I finally saw it sifting sand. (figures) I guess it takes a while for them to get use to a tank. The yellow one didn't do any sand sifting for months. I am going to get another cucumber but it will be a tiger tail. If you don't have any hermit crabs the cucumber should be a great thing to add to the tank.

 

[Rascal1371]

I have had donkey dung and tiger tail cucumbers before (sorry for the non-latin common names - pre-lunch laziness on my part). Both of them did a great job cleaning the sand, didn't seem to eat fauna as much as just detritus and bacterial film, and given the fact that they aren't there anymore and I haven't seen them crawling around on the carpet - I have to assume that they didn't do any damage to the tank when they died. Hope that helps.

 

[urville]

Indeed. Just the kind of info I wanted.