Sea cucumber question

[L98-Z]

Just curious as I have no intentions of buying these.

I know they're poisonous when stressed or killed which could result in death to the surrounding livestock, but does anyone know to what degree?

I'd imagine it would be depend on the size of the sea cucumber as well.

For example, does a 10" sea cucumber wipe out everything in a 300 gallon? Would it if you were running carbon?

I realize there isn't an exact answer to this, I'm just curious as to a general rule or someone who has had past experiences with these? I'm curious as to how poisonous they really are?

 

[rivoth]

The best way to spread bad information is to state that a diverse group of animals all have problem X.

Some types of sea cucumbers have clearly shown they can kill livestock when stressed or die. The Sea Apple Cucumber is well documented for doing this.

If you actually research the literally 100's of threads on sea cucumbers right here on RC, you will note a pattern that some sea cucumbers don't seem to have this nuke trait. For example in all the posts about a sea cucumber death nuking a tank, I've yet to see one that says the cucumber was a tiger tail. I have read lots of posts where hobbyist have said their tiger tail sea cucumber has died and nothing happened. Does this prove that a tiger tail sea cucumber is not toxic? No, but it should give you pause before making global statements about sea cucumbers being poisonous.

So the answer to your question there is no general rule. And nobody can give a more specific answer even for a single species because there is no money for properly making that kind of study. The best you can do is take a species of cucumber you might acquire, and hope there are enough posts about it to help you make an informed guess about it's safety.

 

[L98-Z]

Thanks. As stated in my original post, I have no plans to acquire a sea cucumber. It was solely a question based on curiosity. Based on your post it seems little is known about the toxicity of these creatures. Although the Sea Apple stands out above many others.