Hungry Cucumber?

[Tahoe Reefer]

I've got a large solid black sea cucumber, sand eating one not a filter feeder, and I believe he is hungry. The tank is looking clean and for the first time in over a year and a half I’ve seen him on the glass and on the rocks. It always has been a sand dweller until now. What can I feed him?

 

[charlesr1958]

The few times that I made the mistake of adding quite large species of sea cucumbers and found them doing what yours is doing, I've crushed (powder) fish flakes and/or pellets and let them settle on the sand, which seemed to work but not wanting to go through that effort constantly, I returned it and found a smaller adult species to match its available food source.

Chuck

 

[Tahoe Reefer]

I absorbed this cucumber about 2 years ago as part of a failing reef tank give away. The cucumber has been in its current reef for over a year and hasn't changed in size so I assume it's full grown. When I first added him the tank needed a sand cleaner, it took several months for him to clean up the sand bed, now it stays a clean white. I fear that removing him will allow algae to grow on the sand again. I don’t want to watch this creature slowly starve to death like most sand sifting sea stars, so I'll need to find it a new home or a tasty weekly snack.

 

[Darrin]

dont worry aobut it...

he will find what food he needs... you have plenty in the tank... you probably had too much when he first started..

I think he has been on the glass before, you probably just have never seen him at the time..

I have about 10 and they climb everywhere... mostly at night.. I have even have them spawn before..

d

 

[dendro982]

Check Internet for shrimp pellets and feeding sea cucumber.
I have seen something, but have no reference at hand.

I also had sand-sifting cucumber with not enough sand, and fed it for some time by shrimp pellets, sinking, one at a time. They disappeared, cucumber was alive. Unfortunately, it was short time experience (4 months a so), had tank crash and lost all cucumbers together with sea stars.

 

[Tahoe Reefer]

There is plenty of sand in my tank, the cuc. isn't showing signs of stress or starvation other than climbing where "I've" never seen him which lead me to belive he was searching for food because the sand be no longer supplied him with enough food. I have too many lil inverts to have any piece of food sit on the sand more than 1-2 minutes however, it's worth a shot.
It's most likely that he/she has enough food, there is algae growning thick on the glass everyday, I keep my water "dirty"(for my zoas/pallys), no chemical filters in my system... so there is prob more algae growning on the sand then I can see with the naked eye.

Thnx everyone for your input, I'll try to remeber to post a pic of him to help ID him, he was a rescue case so I have zero info on him other than what I can see.