sea slup id please

[Jman13]

ok so i found a brown and tanish sea slug with black thorns on it i cant get a good picture of it but its brown and tan with thorns and small black spots, keep it or get rid of it???:uzi:

 

[LeslieH]

Impossible to say. From your description my first guess would be a sea cucumber rather than a sea slug.

 

[Jman13]

yea sorry it is a cucumber are there many bad ones if so anyone got some pictures for comparison

 

[LeslieH]

Cukes are either deposit feeders or filter feeders. If the feeding structures are being mopped across the rocks or sand bed it's a deposit feeder; if they are up in the water it's a filter feeder. In either case they are beneficial members of the CUC. Most have varying amounts of defensive chemicals that protect them from predators. The most toxic can nuke a tank but from your description you have one of more harmless ones. Also, recent studies suggest that the defense chemicals may derive from certain foods. These foods typically aren't available in tanks so the cukes get less toxic over time.