csababubbles
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2007
- Messages
- 661
I have this incredible looking sea cucumber. Its almost 2ft long, 2-3" thick, florescent pink. I put it in my refugium a few months ago and it has slowly decreased in size. So until about 2 weeks ago it shrinked to about 2/3 of its original size. I did as much research I could on the animal before I purchased him and if anyone has ever tried researching exotic species of sea cucumbers, you will find very very limited info, with people paraphrasing each other and nobody giving really good firsthand info. Anyways, the general consensus was they are filter feeders by catching small particles on their tentacles and wiping it off in their mouths. They supposedly filter out incredibly small particles so I got the smallest size micro foods available and hoped for the best. I also had a few small fish with him hoping that by feeding the fish, the cucumber might scavenge. Anyways, it did not seem to be working as he was getting progressively smaller which I took as a sign of starvation.
I was getting real nervous of his potential toxicity should he starve to death or otherwise be unhappy with the environment, so I removed him from the fish system and put him in his own tank full of live rock rubble and a couple of big pieces of live rock (this species is found in rock rubble areas so I did not use sand). So on a whim, I took out my 1 micron filter sock from my main tank and put it in the sea cucumber's tank. Within 2 minutes he went all they way across the tank and curled right up into the sock so I could not see him anymore. The next day I check on him and the sock looked like it was literally cleaned out except for what looked like grey dust clumps which I assume may be poop? Anyways, you could see a tremendous increase in his size right away. I put in another dirty filter sock right off my other tank and he crawled right up in the other one and disappeared inside of it. I removed the other sock right. So at this point, I change out the filter sock every other day and it is literally cleaned out with just some grey clumps left over. He is incredibly thicker then before and even though it is difficult to tell length since they always stretch and shrink, he appears longer even.
I am so incredibly happy that I have found a way to keep him from starving. Just crossing my fingers at this point but it seems to be going well at this point. I'll post some before and after pictures soon so you guys can see the difference two weeks made. Here are some I have on this work computer. Just click on them to see them better.
I was getting real nervous of his potential toxicity should he starve to death or otherwise be unhappy with the environment, so I removed him from the fish system and put him in his own tank full of live rock rubble and a couple of big pieces of live rock (this species is found in rock rubble areas so I did not use sand). So on a whim, I took out my 1 micron filter sock from my main tank and put it in the sea cucumber's tank. Within 2 minutes he went all they way across the tank and curled right up into the sock so I could not see him anymore. The next day I check on him and the sock looked like it was literally cleaned out except for what looked like grey dust clumps which I assume may be poop? Anyways, you could see a tremendous increase in his size right away. I put in another dirty filter sock right off my other tank and he crawled right up in the other one and disappeared inside of it. I removed the other sock right. So at this point, I change out the filter sock every other day and it is literally cleaned out with just some grey clumps left over. He is incredibly thicker then before and even though it is difficult to tell length since they always stretch and shrink, he appears longer even.
I am so incredibly happy that I have found a way to keep him from starving. Just crossing my fingers at this point but it seems to be going well at this point. I'll post some before and after pictures soon so you guys can see the difference two weeks made. Here are some I have on this work computer. Just click on them to see them better.
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